The baron frowned when Lance came back with the news.  This was not a good start to his daughter's picnic.  [color=6ecff6]"I will not have some lowlifes ruin this for my daughter.  It would be best to take them out so they will never come back but I am sure the only way to do that would be to lure them in."[/color]  The baron scratched his mustache as he tried to think of a solution.

[color=bc8dbf]"What's going on dad?"[/color]  Veronica asked as she looked around at what everyone was doing.

[color=6ecff6]"Nothing to worry about sugar, just a minor complication."[/color]  The baron assured her before turning serious again.  [color=6ecff6]"Gear Heart, keep her safe.  The rest of you be ready to engage at a moment's notice, let's see if we can lure them in and finish this before any of the hot food gets cold."[/color]

[hr]

Intent on programming the beasts, the four sell swords did not notice they had been noticed; however the apparent leader looked through his eyeglass once again and noticed many of the servants going back into the mansion, something was wrong.  "Curses they're on to us.  Let's come back another day."  He turned to his companions but the largest one looked sheepishly at him.

"Umm I'm afraid the programming has already been complete, we won't be able to take the beasts back with us."  As if to emphasize his point, the closed bag was nearly bursting at the seams as the creatures tried desperately to escape and complete their task.

"Well isn't that great, those beasts cost a pretty penny.  We'll just have to hope they can do the job for us."  The grizzled leader took out a large knife and slashed open the bag, out popped three wriggling masses that looked like crosses between and eel and a lizard.  With long, slim bodies, quite a few pairs of legs with nasty claws on them, and mouths like leeches they were gruesome looking specimens.  About a meter and a half long each they were not the largest of creatures but they were fast, agile, and quite venomous.  They were called Death Worms and had the nasty habit of latching on to their prey to dump their entire reserves of toxins into their target.

The Death Worms scuttled away toward their target, but instead of heading straight for Veronica they made a slight detour toward the pond, their instincts telling them to use the water as cover to reach their target as stealthfully as three semi-aquatic worms could.

The assassin captain watched as the creatures sped off and noticed their path.  "Alright men, we'll provide cover for the creatures until they can reach that bit of water.  Once they're in we'll retreat and come back another day to if those creatures are unsuccessful.  Let's make it snappy!"  The four men checked their equipment and took out their ranged weapons, three crossbows and a short bow and headed off after the monsters, looking around to shoot anyone who tried to intercept the creatures.

Of course this they were not expecting that someone was actually now behind them.