Chapter Thirty-nine
The Search
We agreed that we needed to find a way out. Kima said we were in the basement, though there were upper levels. She also insisted that we find her armor and weapon, and I agreed. There was just one thing pulling at me. "I would feel better if we destroyed these torture devices."
Keothi quickly rendered them unusable with his hammer. I was grateful, the sight of them made my stomach churn. Who knows how many had suffered by them? I thought of Bahamut's commandments to smite evil and stand for justice.
Kima pointed to the metal door as we left the torture chamber. "If we're going to escape this place we're going to have to do it quietly. That's the prison where they keep the prisoners. I think there was one person left. If there is anyone left it would be most prudent to release them."
So I had been right, that was where the prisoners were held. I was glad Sindus had gone the other way first though, or we may have been too late to save Kima.
Kima cautiously looked around the corner, then motioned for us to follow. "I remember when they brought me in, several times, that door is probably locked. It locks and unlocks from both sides. There still might be a guard on the inside, there was always one, standing watch inside the cells. It was always told to watch us inside the cell room."
She definitely was a paladin, always looking out for others. Naidaroe helped Sindus unlock the door, and he thrust his rapier through the opening. There was a soft thud, and Sindus walked in. The rest of us followed.
A guard was slumped on the ground, dead. Sindus was a skilled assassin, which I'd had no idea. What else was he not telling us? I was grateful to have him on our side, but what was making him stay? I'd have to get clear with him when I had a chance. He'd almost died, I wanted to make sure we helped him with what he was looking for.
There was a glowing crystal at the back wall, but otherwise this prison was dark. It smelled rank of death and decay. I liked the duergar less and less the more I saw of their domain.
Kima rushed to the back and peered through the bars of the farthest cell to the left. "Are you alive? Are you still awake?"
We looked around for the keys, finding them on the body of the guard. Sindus found the one to the cell and Kima rushed in, whispering something to the dwarf curled in the corner. She helped him to his feet. "Are you okay? You're going to be okay. These people are friends. They came from Allura, the one I told you about."
The dwarf stood without aid. "Well, let's get the heck out of here. Let's go."
We walked back to the prison door. One of the cells had a body in it, but they were past any help that we could give. Our next step was to find the armor of both Kima and the dwarf, who introduced himself as Kutsool Hammerstone, Dwarven stonecutter. We tried a door across from the torture chamber, which Sindus easily picked.
The air inside was stale and full of dust. I was ready to turn around and try somewhere else, but everyone else wanted to see what was of value inside. I inwardly groaned. "Sindus, just remember what the sphinx said."
He ignored me and started picking open a chest. The walls were covered in weapons and ammunition, including large bundles of arrows. I wasn't interested in those, once on watch I had pulled out all of the arrows in my magical quiver and found that there were seventy more than what I had put in there, giving me around a hundred.
Kima and Kutsool did select weapons to defend themselves until we found the ones that had been taken from them. Kima was not impressed with the longsword she selected. "I guess this will do in a pinch, but I don't necessarily want to go into battle without my armor."
The chest Sindus opened was filled with sawdust, which was cushioning vials of several shapes and colors. Melima put these in her bag. Sindus tried getting into the chest next to it, but failed to pick the lock. Naidaroe tried, but also had no success.
Keothi took a swing at it with his hammer, but missed the corner he was aiming for, hitting the stone on the ground instead. I was anxious to get moving, especially with the noise we were making, but he swung again and unlatched it.
Black liquid oozed from the corner he had hit, and inside were several vials of black liquid. There was also a large stack of parchment. The liquid was ink. Keothi handed these to Melima to store in her magical bag as well.
We finally left the room to go up the other hallway. Kima again took the lead, which I was fine with. She would know the building better than the rest of us. She started up the hallway on the right side, then jumped to the left side and looked back towards us. "There's guards up there! If my armor is anywhere it's going to be in there! It looks like their vault!"
Sindus walked forward with a huge crossbow he'd taken from the small armory and took careful aim. I tried to get up front, but bumped into Ari'yasa and her sword clanged on the wall. I was relieved when I realized it was muffled due to her cloaking spell.
Sindus fired, and I moved forward to help clean up any other guards standing there. The bolt had killed Sindus' target, sticking into his chest, and there was only one other guard. I fired a splintering arrow, then a normal one in the same spot. I backed out of the way to keep my range if he came around the corner.
Naidaroe ran in front of me, casting a spell. She looked at Keothi, who was hot on her heels. "Get that weakling!"
Keothi careened around the corner. A grunt and a thud told me the threat had been neutralized.
I walked forward, finding the guard slumped on the ground and getting sliced by dozens of daggers spinning in the air. Naidaroe waved her hand and they disappeared. Keothi stood victorious. "The door is clear Sindus. Let's open the door."
There was a pair of large vaulted doors between where the two guards had been seated. Kima looked at the carnage, then at Keothi. "You're a tough one, I like you."
Sindus, Naidaroe, and Kutsool started to examine the door. Kutsool said it was of Dwarven make, and rather complicated. They found a key on one of the guards, but the vault required two, and was probably trapped. I let them work on the locks while I kept a watch down both of the hallways that I could see, there was another one almost directly across from the vault door.
Something wasn't right. I couldn't hear anything, but I could sense that something was down here with us. "Guys, there's something else here. I can't tell where they are, but someone or something else is here."
Kima nodded. "I get that sense too."
She listened at the first door in the hall. "I can't hear anything through this one, but I don't want to open it if there's anyone in there."
I listened at the door as well. Rustling, breathing, almost snoring... several creatures... maybe four? I held up my finger to my lips, nodded, and pointed to the door. Kima held up her sword.
Ari'yasa hunched over on the floor, shrinking. Several legs sprouted from her side, and she became a spider, just smaller than the palm of my hand. She crawled under the door and was gone for several minutes.
I moved to the next door, halfway down the hall. This door was too thick and sealed around the edges to hear anything through it. It also had an arcane symbol on it, which made me less inclined to investigate it further. Melima perked up when I mentioned it and came over.
I tried listening at the last door, at the end of the hall, but could hear nothing. I waited for Ari'yasa before continuing anywhere.
She came back out from under the first door, then over to me and the door I was listening at. I had to resist the urge to step on her, I'd had enough of spiders. I was glad she'd given herself a unique blue coloring so we could tell her apart from any other spider, which I would have stepped on.
She went under the door, only to return a moment later. She went to the middle door across the hall, but couldn't get under. She checked if she could get into the vault, but it was also sealed too tightly. Her extra legs retracted into her body, and she stood up as her genasi self.
"The first room has four guards sleeping in it, none of them have a key, and they don't have their armor on right now. The room is super messy and gross. I couldn't get in the middle one, and the last room was an empty barracks, but nicer and much better kept. The brazier in there was recently stoked."
Melima came to the middle door and asked Sindus to unlock it. I walked over to cover them once they could open the door. Sindus fiddled in the keyhole with his tools for a moment. "This door should already be unlocked."
Melima put her hand to her face, and Sindus opened the door just a crack. A duergar in long robes sat at a desk, furiously scribbling notes. He stopped and glanced our direction, then bolted to the corner of the room. Sindus and I had both fired into the room, but his jump dodged our shots.
A circle on the floor began to glow as he softly muttered something. Melima dashed into the room to stop whatever he was doing, reaching out with lightning between her fingers. I ran in, casting my splintering arrow spell. I let my arrow fly as the duergar dodged Melima's grasp.
My arrow pelted the dwarf as I reached for another arrow. The circle stopped glowing, and I remembered the lesson to me from the sphinx. I carefully placed the arrow back in my quiver, this dwarf seemed mostly harmless.
He backed into the corner, he was panting. "Who are you? What do you want?"
Melima blocked his escape. "We want the key. Where is the key?"
The duergar furrowed his brow. "What key? What key?"
"The key to the armory!"
"Armory? Armory is upstairs." Sindus had reached them by now, the milky orb in his hand. He shoved it at the duergar's face, who yelped before he vanished. We wouldn't have to worry about him alerting anyone to our presence, as harmless as he otherwise might have been.
We searched the room for the key. I searched the desk, which was covered in notes and tomes, all seemingly in Dwarvish. I asked Sindus to see if there was anything important written on them.
Melima had opened a cupboard by the door. It was taller than Keothi, and was full of jars, bowls, and sacks of all sorts. They were labeled in Dwarvish as well, but I could recognize some of the contents. It looked like they could be used for potions or spells.
I got excited and started looking for spruce sprigs and mistletoe. If I had those I could cast the same cloaking spell as Ari'yasa. She walked in and looked at the cupboard in awe. "This is amazing!"
We all looked through the cupboard, and Sindus helped me find the components I needed. I put most of them in my pouch, burning a few to ash over a candle so they were ready for me to use.
We returned to the vault. I was growing frustrated I knew too little of magic to help with the trapped door. Melima realized she could see through the crack between the doors well enough to use a spell to get in. She disappeared into a mist, then called to us from the other side. "There's no way to open it from the inside!"
Kima ran to the door. "What do you see?"
"It's hard to tell." Melima's voice was muffled, but we could still hear her.
"Do you see any armor or weapons in there?" Kima asked. There was, and Kima described her armor to Melima. Kutsool described his as well. Melima said she'd look for it.
Soon there was a clatter of coins coming from inside the vault. Naidaroe rushed to the crack. "Melima! Grab some of that gold!"
"We do not need gold," Keothi said. He said what I was thinking.
"How can you say such nasty words? We always need gold!" Naidaroe said.
As we waited I realized there was a stairway right next to the vault doors we weren't watching. I stood at the base of the steps, where I could see the stairs and both hallways. Sindus opened a door on the other side of the vault and started retching. Kutsool closed the door in a hurry. "You don't want to go in there."
In a moment I knew why. The same stench as the alcove wafted over us, but stronger. There was a reason I hadn't cared to investigate that little door without a lock.
A sound caught my ear as I shook my head at our dry heaving rogue. Talking, from up the stairs. I motioned for quiet before I crept up the steps to investigate. The last thing we needed was a patrol stumbling across us. "I'm hearing voices upstairs. I'm going to keep guard and I will book it down here if there is a threat."
After about ten steps the stair came to a platform, turning to the left. I crept up just far enough to see over the top step. Guards stationed at a grand door. They were just chatting, but too much noise would alert them.
I could also see a good portion of the area. This must be the entrance hall to the stronghold. There were sets of armor displayed in the room along long carpets. There was also a balcony all along the walls, with doors along the outside of it, and what looked like another set of stairs to my left.
I returned to the others. "There's guards up on guard up there. They're chatty right now, but if we make too much noise they'll probably hear us."
Melima returned to the door about the same time. "I found both weapons and sets of armor, and I have them."
"How much gold is in there?" Naidaroe asked.
"There is a lot. There is a lot in here and it might be worth us taking a look, but from what I understand it would not be smart nor safe for us to force this door.
"So, I can come out with what I have, I can stay and collect more, or we can try to figure out how to open this door. But all around we have enemies and we are surrounded, so we have to make this decision fast, and we need to make it with the best interest at heart."
"I vote you look for magical items," Keothi said. His comment surprised me based on his usual aversion to magic.
"I vote you grab what you can and go!" Naidaroe said.
"I vote we get out of here!" I said, throwing my hands into the air. The longer we stayed the greater our chances of getting caught.
It was decided she would gather what she could in a couple of minutes. I just wanted to get out, but I knew the others would want some treasure to make this worth their time.
It hadn't been long when we heard Melima curse by the door. "There's a mimic in here!"
