As a strategy is chosen, Matteo joins Ullar and the others is setting up on the ground floor. Drawing out his weapons again, Matteo can be heard muttering prayers to his chosen pantheon for aid. Matteo looked to Ullar, the large man looking ready for what was to come. "Ullar, my friend. I've not much left in me, but what I have will guard your back. Urak, spear-brother. Have the spirits any advice for us... I've never been more willing to listen!"

At that moment, the drums go silent.....

As the defenders disperse to take their positions, Marika gives a wave and calls out good luck to them each, praying fervently that she's not speaking to any of them for the last time. Turning back to her companions on the first floor, she gives a nervous smile, hoping that she looks at least a little more confident than she feels. "Shall we get to work reinforcing those barricades?"

A few minutes later, working alongside Alfana to push more furniture against the hall's already-barred northern door, she asks, "Do you have any idea why the goblin tribes are suddenly hostile? Or have they always attacked humans without cause?"

Rhune runs to the top of the tower with Stellios. Once on the tower Rhune positions herself next to one of the crenalations. She places her quiver on the ground next to her propping it against the wall. She reaches up and pushes back the hood of her cloak. She then reaches into one of her pouches and pulls out a ribbon and ties back her long curly hair. Looking over at Stellios, "Hi. I am Rhune Morthaine. Too bad we had to meet under such circumstances," she says in a sighing tone of voice. "I will watch toward the bridge, but as Peytr said it is going to be a long night."

Stellios looks at her appreciatively, "Don't think because I'm old and only got one arm that you're safe up here with me, honey. Back in my day I had plenty of babes, let me tell you!" He grumbles a bit and turns to watch the eastern forest.

She smiles at him, as she notices the way he looks at her, "I will be on my best guard then, Stellios," she says lightly warming to this human.

As usual, Sam follows Rhune up the spiral staircase. He finds a spot next to Rhune. Notching an arrow into the bow he turns his head and grins at Rhune. Then, he accidentally lets the arrow fly outside, startling him. "Yikes! Woopsy daisy." Then he lets loose a little chuckle and notches another arrow.

She looks at him, "Sam have you ever used a bow? If you have then please be careful. If you haven't please don't," she says politely. "You will only hurt yourself more"

Sam looks at Rhune and gives a grin. "Of course I have used a bow before. Don't you remember Rhune? Hmm.. maybe you should check for head injuries..I know I had one.. and it made me think that I was a king. Jeese la weez...to think of me as a wee king? hrmph.. I am a dragon-lord! Mewahahaha"

Stellios peers at Sam, "A boy?" He harrumphs, "And a foolish boy at that." He turns and heads down the stairs, relocating to the eastern windows, joining Asif, Krige, and Urak. Stellios mans the western window, while Asif the eastern. Urak takes the south and Krige the north.

Asif deep within his own thoughts looks up and sees the stranger join him by the window. With a most welcoming smile and respectfull tone he greets him warmly, making a low bow as he speaks. "Greetings most venerable one. This most unworthy son of Aten is honoured to share his fate with one who has seen so much in his life. Fate is cruel that we meet not in more peacefull times. I take the name of Asif al Mansour, by what name do you answer?"

The one-armed old fellow looks at Asif sternly, "Stellios is my name. What type of fellow are you? I can't say I've ever seen a foreigner of your type before."

"Efendi I come from far far away, the land of the holy sands and the river Nile which gives it life. It is the place given light and strength by the rays of Aten. By ship do I come to Florence, and from there to this place in the company of these good people." Asif waves his hand in a sweeping motion towards all those who entered this place with him. "Few days do we share same fate, but bonds of shared spilt blood do we share. We talk more soon, attention must look toward those who wish us ill!"

Asif then turns to study the land sourounding the fortress.

The drums stay silent for some time, making the entire group quite nervous. Then they begin again with the same rythym they had before. The group breathes a sigh of relief and the group on the ground floor returns to piling up whatever is handy against the outside facing doors. Time goes by as the party gets edgier and edgier. Suddenly Sam yells out, "In the woods! They are coming!" Rhune turns toward the eastern forest where Sam is pointing and can make out the heat signatures of several small figures, five, she thinks.

Both of them bring their bows to bear and fire into the woods. In the dark, it is impossible to see where the arrows go, but Rhune sees one figure, the one she aimed at, fall to the ground. The others, however, take back their arms and a hail of stones comes toward them and one toward Asif at his window. Asif barely hears the missile coming and dodges out of the way, while the battlements protect Sam and Rhune against theirs. All three fire arrows into the woods, though Asif has trouble even picking out a target, much less firing on it. Sam sees his target fall to the ground as well, and Rhune is reasonably sure she hit hers, though he retreats along with the other two, obviously not badly injured.

Asif swears with frustration as he takes cover from the rain of stones upon him.

"By the prophets matted beard I see them not. Where are they? Cursed Infidels!! Stand in the light of Aten you cowards and fight like real men!"

That threat seemingly gone, the defenders continue their vigil, as Sam and Rhune congratulate each other on the ease of driving off the threat. Hours go by. At various times, the drumming ceases, but nothing else happens. Sam and Rhune at various times see small figures running through the woods, but not with enough detail to target them. Sam lets loose the occasional arrow at them excitedly, but hears and sees no hits.

About three hours into the party's defense, the drumming and chanting ceases again. Those in the gallery hear shouting from the western bedrooms, obviously Petr, "The wolfriders are attacking! Be wary!" Those in the tower do not hear anything of this, but Rhune can see two wolves and their mounts come charging across the bridge followed by perhaps another ten goblins. At the same time, Sam sees a group of eight goblins charge through the burned northern palisade to take cover in the remains of the burned barns. Sam fires two shots at the charging little men, hitting with the second arrow, taking one of the goblins in the stomach. He falls, but the other seven take cover behind the burned timbers and begin hurling slingstones toward the northern windows and the tower, though the top of the tower is somewhat far away.

Stellios, Asif, and Urak stay where they are, wanting to make sure no goblins sneak in while the attack is taking place. Krige at the northern window fires his bow through the northern window at the wolves. However, one of his arrows bounces off the tough hide of one of the wolves and another misses entirely. The wolfriders are at the northern door to the kitchen in seconds on their speedy mounts, and they begin hacking with their axes at the door. Those in the western wing fire their arrows at the half-score of goblins rushing across the north yard to join the wolfriders. One of them drops with an arrow in his chest, but the others manage to reach the door.

Meanwhile, Krige fires again at the wolves, hitting one, but he knows the hit is not a good one, as the arrow is shaken loose. Ullar and the rest on the first floor see cracks begin to appear in the kitchen's northern door and hear the warcries of the dozen or so goblins outside. Sam and Rhune have a bad angle to fire on the goblins attacking the north door so fire on those in the ruined barn. However, all their arrows find no joy. Those in the gallery hear a woman's cry from the western quarters. One of the stones barely bounces off the battlements of the tower by Rhune, but the others bounce off, missing badly. Another stone flies through Krige's window and bounces off his leather-clad shoulder. Krige winces a bit, knowing he will have a bruise, but it won't stop him from continuing to fire at the war-party outside.

"Uh... Damned goblins!" mumbles Krige, warily looking out of window. Then he makes short prayer to the Lord of The Wood and continues shooting at goblins, thinking that his god will guide arrows at targets.

The bruise on his shoulder appears to be throwing off his aim, as both of Krige's shots miss the teeming mob of goblins by some distance. They jeer and taunt at him in goblin tongue as the two that rode the wolves continue to hack at the door.

Rhune sighs. She wishes she could get those that at the barn better. She had thought to help those downstairs with her sword if things got out of hand. But with those at the barn it will be impossible to leave here. They will need to keep them from coming to the building. She prays to Corellien and Erevan for some kind of help, a miracle would help, an early dawn. She continues to keep watch toward the barn loosing arrows when she thinks she can hit her target. She does not want to waste her arrows.

She can pick out the targets, though it is a difficult shot to hit them. The embers of the burning barn create havoc with her infravision, so she must trust to regular sight, shooting at the silhouetts cast by the moonlight. To her joy, she sees that one of her arrows drops one of the cowardly goblins. Sam also fires a pair of arrows and would swear that the second was on target, but the goblin does not fall.

As the news spreads about the attack on the northern kitchen door, Marika gives Alfana a quick reassuring smile, then abandons her post by the hall door to sprint up the stairs, taking them three at a time. At the top of the stairs she turns left and makes for the nearest unused window on the west wall, from which she can see almost a dozen goblins well on their way to reducing the kitchen door to kindling.

Alfana dashes right behind Marika up the stairs. Marika finds that the goblins have picked a good place to attack, as there are only two windows on the western wall that look down upon them, and one is directly above the staircase's lowermost section, making it impossible for anyone less than ten feet high to shoot through. Krige is currently manning the other window. She can see beyond his action, though, and the goblins have indeed made headway at crashing through the door. However, she sees that three arrows come flying down into the mob, all three of which appear to hit their targets, the wolf that Krige hit earlier. The wolf howls in pain as it is stuck like a pincushion. It is clearly a most unnatural beast, though, as it still stands, dashing off toward the bridge to escape it's tormentors.

A hail of slingstones comes from the burned barn, scattering from the western bedrooms all the way to the tower. One barely misses Sam's head, but the rest appear to bounce off the building or stick in the wooden walls.

"Asif, Urak, we need your bows over here," she calls over her shoulder, then steps away from the window and reaches into her belt pouch. She takes two deep breaths, rehearsing the spell in her mind so that she can cast it as quickly as possible, then steps back into the window and raises her staff. "Xe-miam fiel..." she chants, beginning the incantation that most of the others by now recognize as a Sleep spell.

Seeing that Marika is going to cast a spell, Krige backs away from the window. Asif and Urak come over, but see that there is only enough space for one attacker. They then move to the northern pair of windows to attempt to help with the goblins sheltered in the barn's remnants.

Meanwhile, Marika barely manages to get the spell off before a hail of stones clatters off the window she stands hard by. She reels backward as the smallish stones bounce off her upper torso. Minor wounds at best, but they hurt nonetheless. She heads for the southeast corner to cover the holes in the defense created by Asif and Urak relocating. Fortunately, she sees that the goblins have not made any aggressive moves in either direction.

Those at the windows yell with pleasure, though, as no less than half a dozen of the wolfskinned goblins drops to the ground. Meanwhile, the group hears Taras yell from the western quarters and see that he has managed to drop the wolf that was fleeing toward the bridge, finally dead. Some of you briefly think that his arrows might better have been spent on those still attacking, but there is no time now.

Xania holds her spell. Waiting until there is a group of goblins charging her in particular. Hoping to take out as many as possible.

Ullar, to all who are standing by him, ready for Goblins to break through: "We are NOT going to let them take Petr's house. Those foul creatures are attacking for no reason, at least, they attacked us for no reason and I plan to make it cost them dearly!"

The warrior looks at all of you who are standing at the surface of the building, his Two-Handed leaning against a chair, Petr's battleaxe in his hands. Three spears are also ready; Ullar is prepared. Although he is slightly injured, the sounds of battle create some strange kind of mixture in his blood which has a devestating result: no more mister shy-guy!

Jacobus looks across to Ullar and grins, "Try to contain your excitement my friend, you'll get your wish soon enough methinks." Testing his longsword once, Jacobus moves over to Ullar's side. "I'm going to make sure you at least remain alive."

Ullar sees that the goblins have managed to cleanly hack the door in two and have begun chopping into the furniture piled against it when he sees half their number drop like flies. The remaining five goblins panic and dash back toward the bridge. The remaining wolf sees it's rider grab a sleeping goblin and hoist him upon his back before charging off.

The three in the bedrooms fire their arrows at the wolf, but it's speed is too great, and it crosses the bridge before they can catch it. Krige meanwhile targets the slower goblins, firing quickly, but his shoulder bruise still seems to be affecting him. One arrow is on target, but apparently does not pierce the goblins hide, as it keeps on running. He fires two more shots but neither is successful. Taras yells with joy once again as he manages to drop a fleeing goblin with another arrow.

While this is going on, Rhune and Sam continue to fire at their hidden targets, but are unable to kill any of them. Krige, targetting the fleeing goblins, feels the sting of another stone hitting him in the right arm, further deadening his aim.

When those in the barn see that the attackers have fled the scene, they attempt to follow suit, dashing east. Unfortunately for them, now Asif and Urak have set up in the northern windows, and fire upon them. Asif would swear he hits with both his arrows, but the tough little bastards just keep running. Urak, meanwhile, has poor luck as his bowstring snaps with an audible twang before he launches a single arrow. Rhune from her vantage has better luck, dropping both her targets. Sam hits one as well, but it also does not fall.

The four run out of sight of those in the gallery and almost reach the edge of the woods when Rhune and Sam take their final shots. Only two of the goblins manage to reach the safety of the woods, as each of them takes one down near the edge.

You all congratulate yourselves briefly before Ullar yells out that there are still five victims of Marika's spell lying in front of the kitchen, asleep and unguarded.

"Do we need any of them for questioning?" asks Xania, drawing her dagger and preparing to move to the five sleepers.

"Well, if we are" replies Ullar, "we better do it now, since we have bought ourselves some time. I can carry two of them at least, but I'd like someone to protect my back!" Ullar goes out to get a few goblins at our hands, although he has the feeling that nobody in the group speaks Goblin.

"Perhaps you could tie the ones you wish to keep up. I can just kill the rest," Xania replies.

Marika wanders in from upstairs, and gives a low whistle when she sees the damage to the kitchen door -- even worse than it looked from the window. "No need to kill them, I'd say," she says, helping to shift the furniture so that the defenders can reach the sleeping goblins. "Petr said a lot of humans have gone missing around here. If any of them are still alive, these fellows might know where. And I'd like to learn why three disperate tribes of goblins are working together, and so much more agressive than usual -- maybe some new leader has arisen."

While the others deal with the captives, Marika quickly moves through the courtyard, gathering any unbroken arrows she can find. She keeps a close eye on the surrounding woods, trusting in her sharp night vision to give her time to retreat to the house should any threat appear.

She is able to find several unbroken arrows in the ground or in their victims, but realizes that she is putting herself in some danger to collect them, and only grabs those in easy reach. Nonetheless, she manages to grab almost a score.

Rhune sighs, they were able to hold them off this time, but what of next time? "Sam, go down to where the weapons were and see if there are any more arrows. Bring as many as you can. We may need them. I will keep watch while you are gone," she tells the little fellow. "Oh and good shooting," she adds with a smile.

She continues to watch for goblins from her vantage point, again targeting those she can see and has a hope of hitting. She plans to use all the arrows she can until they run out and then simply keep watch with her sword ready to join in melee downstairs. She blows a stray lock of hair from her eyes and prays again to her gods.

Jacobus wanders round the lower floor trying to bolster the defences of the Northern door. He hits upon the idea to use spears in the barricade to further hamper their attacks. "Well, I guess we can only sit and wait now.", he says as he lays down on the table in the main room. "Hmmm, a couple of days ago I was languishing in gaol, complaining about the hand fate had dealt me, now here I am up to my neck in trouble, I wouldn't have it any other way," he says grinning. "This sure beats the merchant business.