To redirect, the person you want to redirect on must be fighting you.
So at the inn, its likely that they are all beating on the inner because they can't immediately redirect on you, and therefore once you are beating on one of them, you usually can't redirect as easily unless
1) you flee and return
2) the person you want to redirect is rescued and you initiate a fight/he initiates a fight with you thereby bringing him into direct combat with you

oops, this meant to go under main thread.