The Fighting Acrobats
Tumblers, fire-breathers, all the thrills of an acrobatic troupe about to kick your arse! This is high-theatre, and we have font-row seats. We quickly move back a few rows to avoid the initial rush and allow us time to compose ourselves a bit better. Dexter and George, our two able fighters, set themselves at the front. Ann-See and myself hang back a little, ready to dodge around the edges of the fray to take advantage of weak points in our adversaries. Tal the beserker, our most ferocious attacker with the lack of brains to match, is... well, he's wandering around town with our Scroll of Maximum Authority. We're sure he'll jump in to the fight when he's ready though.
As the acrobats nimbly charge towards us, George fends one off. In front of the orchestra pit he deftly steps to one side of a foe and sends his blade with deadly force in to his neck. A critical hit! The acrobat is decapitated, his torso slumping to the ground as his head bounces in to the orchestra pit. 'Don't lose your head in the heat of battle!' George quips, as it bounces off the percussion with a satisfying 'badum-tish!'
Meanwhile, Dexter has his hands full. Like some strange kind of acrobat magnet, first one, then two, then three opponents jump on to him and grapple him, stopping him from doing pretty much anything. Dexter spends the rest of the fight trying to draw a light weapon, his hand axe, and as every attempt has three people trying to stop him he is not terribly successful.
Ann-See and myself get caught up in smaller frays, dodging around, causing some damage, taking rather a lot more damage, until I am unconscious and bleeding and Ann-See comes face-to-face with a fire-breather that scorches her bunny ears, and she too is unconscious and bleeding. It's a good thing Tal has turned up by now, as he starts pummelling everything in sight. Some of the acrobats try to incapacitate him as other have done with Dexter but to no avail, as Tal shrugs them off. He keeps one of them close by though, instead choosing to pick him up and throw him at another acrobat. There weren't any more attempts to grapple Tal after that, maybe Dexter should take notes.
The rest is a bit of a blur, sadly. My hit points drop lower and lower, from -8, to -9, the getting-deadly -10, -11, 12... And George comes to my rescue! After three make-or-die saving throws George succeeds in a basic healing check and stops my bleeding. I turn away from the light and after a dozen minutes or so I am back in the theatre. Ann-See is up and resting, kind of woozy. We have three acrobat captives. The boss-man acrobat is neither dead nor captured. The rest of the party are alive and well.
And Dexter defiantly draws his hand axe at last.