Camilla scrambled away, leaping up over the bar to find some protection from the brawl, she colided with the inkeepers wife as she came out of the back room. The woman held a blunderbuss across her chest and squawked as Camilla crashed into her bearing her to the ground in a heap. The gun went off with a roar that left Camilla's ears ringing even as dust and plaster fell from the ceiling in a dirty haze. The porcine woman snarled and shoved Camilla off her, struggling to her feet as a Kislivite hit the bar infront of her. With obvious zeal the Innkeeper's wife bought the butt of the smoking blunderbuss down on the tough's head with a meaty thunk. She turned and glared at the former courtesan, mayhem in her eyes, but Camilla put her hand on the butt of one of her own loaded pistols and the woman turned away with a snarl.

Sighing with relief Camilla scrambled up and leaped over the corner of the bar to the stairs. Ricardo followed her lead, using the bar for cover, but as he leaped over the bar a throwing knife sailed from the crowd and stuck the Tilean in the back. Ricardo let out something between a snarl and a screech and fell behind the bar. Having reached the stairs Camilla spun and watched the brawl. From the slight height of the stairs she could see that Ricardo was still moving and that Cydric was giving a good account of himself.

[b]“Cydric!”[/b] Camilla shouted through cupped hands, signalling that she had made it to the relative safety of the stairs. The brawl was beginning to turn ugly. What had began as more or less playful shoving was devolving rapidly into something much more dangerous as naked steel winked in the fists of a few of the fighters. A Middenlander slashed at a pair of Kislivte’s who had pushed him into a corner, sending one reeling back, a bloody gash on his arm. The fellows companion drew a much larger knife from his boot and grinned a piratical grin. Across the floor the blond Middenlander stalked towards the bar. Camilla saw that he had a small pistol tucked in close against his leg. Suddenly she realized that the fellow wasn’t just a particularly vicious brawler. For some reason he was intent on killing Richardo, it had been his knife that had struck her friend.

[b]“Cydric!”[/b] she shouted, trying in vain to make herslf heard of the mass of swearing, screaming men. She pulled her own pistol from her belt. Firing it now would turn this into  a bloodbath but she wasn’t going to let Ricardo or Cydric be knifed to death to avoid a little bloodshed.

[@POOHEAD189]