A run through Skullport...
Kuhl's ears still rang from the concussive thunder of Sophiya's elemental attack when he heard the thwack of a crossbow being loosed from somewhere in the magical darkness in front of him. The bolt whispered past his temple, the air displaced by its passage stirring his hair and the half-elf dove down to the arena sand. There he listened as other sounds came, the thud of blows, grunts of pain, and the falling of bodies.
"Loose!" a guard screamed in the dark and a full volley of crossbows sounded.
But not as many as Kuhl would have expected.
Judging from a meaty thunk and a sharp cry of pain, one of the whistling bolts found a target. Somebody fell near the half-elf and the coppery scent of blood mixed with the smell of sand.
"I had - my hands - raised!" the person gasped. "Why - did you - rank - incompetents - loose - on me?"
It sounded like captain Staget and his halting cadence bespoke his pain. The veil of darkness lifted as suddenly as it came and Kuhl could see again. Of the dozen or so guards that had come to escort them from the arena, only a few remained standing. The rest lay fallen on the sand, dead or unconscious.
One of the standing ones, a rough looking human with a dark beard that failed to fully conceal the scar on his cheek, locked gazes with the half-elf as he rose. The guard's eyes widened and he tossed away his spent crossbow and reached for the sword buckled at his waist. His hand never found the hilt - Sky's jumping snap kick landed flush on his chin and dropped him in a heap.
"Good job distracting him," the tabaxi said as she landed.
Kuhl looked to find another target, but Raelyn and Sophiya had handled them as well. The genasi's tattoos still glowed with the effort and the drow wielded an already blood slick short sword she'd wrested from someone. The half-elf's attention went to the wounded Staget. The grizzled old Watch officer clutched at a bolt sticking out of his chest as he squirmed in the sand.
"I'm going to have to pull it out to heal it," Kuhl said as he kneeled.
The captain nodded and made a show of gritting his teeth, which did nothing to stop his yell of pain as the half-elf pulled the bolt free.
"Helm's Watching Eye, I hate you right now," the man grunted.
Kuhl poured healing magic into the wound, or at least he tried too. Only a little trickled before the inner well of divine energy he tapped was exhausted. He closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath and concentrated, really reached, but the result remained the same. All of the magic he'd used in Blood and Fortune had taken its toll. Still Staget was thankful.
"Change that to I love you right now," the old watch officer breathed. "You and your elf moon goddess."
The wounds were not even closed, blood still seeped into his already stained, filthy, and torn green-and-goldenrod doublet uniform, but at least it was significantly lessened. But there was a rasp to Staget's voice that worried the half-elf considering where he'd been struck.
"Where did that darkness come from?" Esvele asked as she scrambled to scavenge a short sword from one of the fallen Xanathar henchmen.
"Drow magic," Sophiya answered, arming herself as well. "Raelyn's. And she was trained to blind fight."
"But not with my hearing dulled by the wave of thunder from your attack," the dark-elf said, shaking her head as if to clear it. "I almost couldn't."
"I followed the plan," Sophiya said, throwing up her free hand in exasperation.
"So you did," Raelyn said. "But we need to move. Our escape has already been seen. More guards will come."
In the arena seats above, onlookers pointed and the murmur of their excited chatter rose. Still, none of them ran to fetch guards or cried out, but rather stood to get a better view. For them Blood and Fortune continued, Kuhl judged.
"Anyone else hurt?" he asked as he helped Staget to his feet.
The Watch officer grunted in pain with the effort of getting up and the half-elf moved under an arm to support the older man. They did need to move, but he'd be damned if they left wounded members of their team in their haste.
"He doesn't look too good," Xia, the tea house server, said.
The youth pointed to the dog bite victim who had been sentenced to play on their team, but had spent the entire time running away from the action.
"Doesn't look too good?" Claudio, the young noble scion, said. "He looks dead!"
Given the man lay on his back with a bolt sprouting out of his forehead, the half-elf agreed with the youth's assessment. He looked dead. Very dead.
"Good riddance to him," the drow snapped. "Now, let's go."
She led the way into the exit tunnel of the arena, bending to retrieve a second sword as she did. The group of kobolds tasked with opening and closing the heavy gate doors scurried away and scampered out of the arena ahead of her. Sophiya followed and Esvele also bent to grab another sword.
"For you," she said looking at Kuhl and shoving the extra blade in her belt "If there is any fighting, we're going to want you for more than carrying our wounded."
"But this wounded is very appreciative," Staget mumbled, leaning heavily on the half-elf as they started to move.
Kuhl did a head count - Raelyn led them, Sophiya followed her, then Esvele. He supported the Watch captain and Sky now came up beside him, loading a crossbow with a snick as she shouldered a quiver of bolts. The three Waterdhavian youths were all accounted for - Xia, Claudio, and their friend Arthright - each having picked up a weapon as well, the girl a dagger.
"Where is Samara?" the half-elf asked, looking for the halfling wererat.
"Run off," the drow said over her shoulder. "I heard her flee almost as soon as I cast the darkness. I nearly did as well, but I…"
She trailed off with another shake of her head that stirred the silvery-white hair hanging down her back, as if she herself was confused as to the reason why she hadn't broken off on her own.
"Umm, goblin and antler boy are following us," Arthright warned, his young voice uncertain.
Kuhl turned, not really sure what he would do as he was unarmed and supporting the wounded Staget. They were all in the exit tunnel of the arena now and the former shape-shifted wolf and goblin rider were following. Both stood in the mouth of the tunnel. The goblin in the green dragon scale armor had removed his helmet and hooked it to his belt. He carried his padded lance over one shoulder. His skin was a vibrant shade of green that almost blended with his armor and, like his companion, he seemed very young, not that the half-elf knew all that much about how goblins aged and matured.
"Are you looking for death?" Raelyn asked, crossing her short swords in front of her with a clink. "Very well, come and find it."
"Death?" the goblin said, brilliant yellow eyed widening.
He and his antlered friend shared an uncertain look.
"Why would we look for death?" the boy druid asked. "Is it lost? And if it is lost, why would you expect us to find it? Find it yourselves."
"Your antlers," Sky said, tail lashing. "Witch curse? Pixie prank? Father a stag?"
"I could see my mother having a child fathered by some sort of mystic stag," Sophiya mumbled to herself, but loud enough to be heard. "If he had some signs of genie heritage, I'd guess he was another half-brother."
"Dunno," the boy said, shrugging, staring cross-eyed up at his antlers and ignoring the genasi. "Don't remember much before the Witchlight Carnival. But I do think there was a time when I didn't have them."
"It's a wonder I don't have a half-unicorn brother," Sophiya mused, still prattling away to herself. "Now a sister, that would be fine, better than fine, but not another brother. Please, no..."
"Witchlight carnival," Sky said, focused on the antlered boy. "Sounds interesting. I'm Red Sky in the Morning."
"Ash," the boy said. "And this is Mite. You're very fast. And nice tackle! We went flying!"
Esvele held up a hand to stop the tabaxi from responding to the compliment.
"Why are you following us?" She asked.
"Following you?" Mite said.
He seemed to have a habit of repeating questions back.
"We aren't following you," Ash said. "Blood and Fortune is over, so we're leaving."
"Back to the Wyllowwood," the goblin said, nodding.
"The Wyllowwood," the noble repeated, voice growing excited. "Is there a Kressando there? Young man, fair skin, dark curly hair?"
She had come down into Undermountain in search of her missing brother, Kuhl remembered. But both Ash and Mite shook their heads before Esvele finished speaking.
"No Kressando," the antlered boy said.
"No young man with dark curly hair," the goblin agreed.
The noble woman's shoulders slumped and she heaved a sigh.
"You live in the Wyllowwood?" Sophiya asked. "You don't work for the Xanathar?"
Again both shook their heads.
"Then why do you play in its crazy game?" the genasi asked.
"Why not?" Ash asked, voice and expression confused. "We're crowd favorites."
"Lots of cheering," Mite agreed. "And chanting. Ash-Mite, Ash-Mite."
"We need to get moving," Staget said. "As the drow said, more guards will come."
He punctuated the statement with a wracking cough. Blood flecked his hand when he pulled it away from his mouth.
"The human is right. We're wasting time with these two," Raelyn growled, lifting one of her swords. "Give me a reason not to cut you both down."
The antlered boy's face scrunched up in thought, taking the statement seriously even though Kuhl would never let the drow carry through with her threat. Sophiya also gave the dark-elf an admonishing glance.
"I can give him some healing," Ash said, pointing at the Watch officer. "And lead you to a safe place in Undermountain."
"To Wyllow?" the goblin asked.
His friend nodded.
"Not to Wyllow," Kuhl said. "Just take us to the closest way out of Skullport."
"Why not Wyllow?" Sky whined. "She lives in a magical forest. Deep underground. They say butterflies nestle in her hair. You can't tell me you don't want to see that."
"Not to Wyllow," the half-elf repeated.
Obviously he couldn't trust everything the false Meloon had said, but putting themselves at the mercy of a hundreds of years old archdruid did not seem like a good idea - even if butterflies nestled in her hair.
"The nearest way out of Skullport is the Shadow Pass," the young druid said.
"The Shadow Pass then," Kuhl said, not liking the sound of that name the moment it left his lips, but what choice did they have?
"If that is the way you want to go," the antlered boy said, shrugging. "We can take you there."
The cringing frown on the goblin's face did not inspire confidence, but it was not the time to be indecisive.
"Agreed," the half-elf said. "But heal my friend first."
Raelyn gave Kuhl a glare with her non-swollen shut eye, but the half-elf ignored her and moved to meet the antlered boy at the tunnel entrance, half carrying and half dragging the stumbling Watch officer. The boy touched the man's wounded chest and Staget hissed a sigh into the paladin's ear and started bearing his own weight.
"All I can do," the boy said. "Not much magic left."
"I can relate," Kuhl said.
"I can manage on my own now," the Watch officer said, no longer leaning on the half-elf.
He held out a hand towards Esvele and she passed the sword in her belt to him. Kuhl was now free of helping anyone and the only one weaponless. He gave a questioning look to Raelyn who bore two swords.
"Dark Mother curse my soul to haunt this half-elf forever," the drow amuttered, shaking her head. "Should die for the lack of a second blade."
But she twirled one of her weapons and handed it to Kuhl hilt first, then gestured at the goblin youth and antlered boy to lead on.
They exited the tunnel to the plaza before the arena. When Kuhl was last here it had been manacled and chained in a line as a procession of prisoners on the way to play Blood and Fortune. He wasn't sure if his situation had really improved. Could they really fight their way out of a subterranean city - especially with three youths in tow, five youths counting the antlered boy and the goblin?
But he soon realized they didn't need to fight an entire city. The arena was essentially a walled fortress with a giant interior courtyard. While the entrance and exit tunnel gave access to players and guards to the sandy floored area of play, the audience left by descending stairs from the tiered seating. A crowd had streamed into the plaza with spectators departing. A group near the edge of the public square made Kuhl nervous - a dwarf, a half-orc, and four rough looking humans. While they dressed no differently than other Skulkers, the half-elf could tell they were Xanathar enforcers by the way they watched the crowd and by the wide-berth others gave them.
But they weren't looking towards the arena, rather monitoring those who left the plaza headed towards the center of town, back towards the fish market, which Kuhl could faintly smell. The group of escaped prisoners was able to slip into the milling crowd unnoticed by this watching group.
Others, of course, did notice and Kuhl expected them to cry out and raise the alarm at any moment. But the citizens of Skullport seemed far more concerned about the ramifications of an assault on the lair of the Xanathar than the escape of some prisoners.
"You think it is the Zhents?" A sallow skinned passerby asked his companion as they pushed past.
"Mayhaps," the other Skulker said. "They're in a war up in the streets of the Deep, ain't they?"
"Could be a good thing," the sallow one mused. "They fight, we get some relief from their protection racket."
"Whoever wins will just bleed us more," his friend spat. "That's the way of it..."
Others were more concerned with the results of Blood and Fortune.
"Would it have killed you to let Nadia kill you?" a kobold with a scar on his snout whined, poking a clawed finger into Kuhl's thigh, seemingly oblivious to the half-elf wielding a short sword.
There was something familiar about the little creature. Kuhl thought he might have met him before.
"Do you know the payout I would have gotten for betting that line?" the kobold asked.
"A lot?" the half-elf asked.
He tried side-stepping around his harasser, but the kobold stayed in front of him, barring his way.
A lot!" the little creature confirmed.
"Well she probably would have killed me if the game had continued," Kuhl said. "But it didn't. Sorry."
He didn't, of course, actually feel sorry, but he wanted to get out of this conversation as quickly as possible in the least attention drawing way.
"Wait!" the kobold said. "That is true! The game did end early! I shouldn't lose my wager if the game didn't play out, right?"
He scurried away back towards the arena.
"Gamblers are the same above and below it seems," Staget chuckled. "Always looking to swindle their way out of paying."
"Which way?" Raelyn questioned.
The antlered boy pointed and it was not in the direction most of the departing spectators went, which meant it was also not in the direction of the watching guards.
"Take us," the drow said. "Quickly."
"But not too quickly," Esvele said. "Everyone walk naturally. Blend in."
Considering their group was led by a boy with antlers and a goblin in iridescent green dragon scale armor and included a genasi wearing barely there crystalline dragon scale armor, blending in was probably impossible - especially with a tabaxi standing at her full lanky height and looking around with wide golden-eyed curiosity. But they tried anyway, weaving their way through the Skulkers leaving the arena.
"I forgot to pick up my blanket," Sophiya cursed, shivering. "I really need another ring of warmth."
They were deep underground in a giant cavern next to a huge body of water, of course it was cold. And that cold would be a problem for the genasi, dressed as she was, if their escape through Undermountain became extended. Before Blood and Fortune, their guards had cast aside the blanket she'd worn around her shoulders before in the entrance tunnel their group had just exited. Despite it being just a quick jog back to get it, it felt too late to go return for it now.
The arena and its corresponding plaza had been built on the rocky shoreline. Above it was open air to the unseeable great cavern ceiling in the darkness overhead. Beyond the shoreline, however, where Ash and Mite led them, Skullport was a jumbled warren of haphazard construction.
It did not look like the motley of buildings primarily built of scavenged ship hulls should continue standing, but somehow they had, apparently for a very long time based on the age of the buildings. The crisscrossing catwalks above the ground level looked particularly unsafe, yet Kuhl could see groups moving up there, if the wandering strings of golden lantern light was any indication. The half-elf hoped getting to this Shadow Pass didn't involve traversing any of those hanging pathways.
"Oi there! Stop in the name of the Eye!"
They had almost made it out of the plaza when the gruff voice yelled out. Kuhl froze in place and turned to find the milling crowd parting quickly and leaving his group isolated and exposed. The speaker was a large bald and bearded man with a heavy set, muscular build in the group of enforcers.
"In the name of the Eye?" Raelyn called out. "I think not."
She brandished her short sword and set her feet, her invitation clear. Sophiya, next to the drow, raised her own blade, the tattoos twining down her limbs sparking in anticipation of her need for strength. Esvele joined them and Sky shouldered her crossbow.
The Xanathar Guild members traded nervous glances, seeming to realize they might not possess the numbers to recapture the prisoners. The parting crowd had not drifted far, but no help to either side would come from that front. They were all spectators once again and likely more than eager to watch a continuation of Blood and Fortune outside the arena.
"Harko is coming this way," the dwarf said, pointing. "Best wait for him."
At the edge of Kuhl's dark vision, beyond the light of the plaza in the direction of the fish market, came a new group led by an auburn haired man with a whipcord build and several gold hoops piercing one ear. With him were eight humanoid raven creatures like the ones Kuhl had fought in the warehouse when they rescued Renaer. Kenku, according to the nobleman.
The enforcers stood straighter, smiles of confidence touching their lips with the appearance of these reinforcements.
"Chaos curse it!" Raelyn growled.
And chaos apparently wasn't done with them yet. A shriek sounded from above and cries of surprise erupted from the watching crowd. They flooded back to the edges of the plaza in a panic.
"Dragon!" Xia screamed.
It wasn't a dragon, Kuhl had seen a dragon in Gracklstugh, and this reptilian creature was far smaller. It was a wyvern that dropped into the center of the square - the same one who had slept on one of the observation towers during Blood and Fortune. Just before smashing into the flagstones from its dive it spread its leathery wings, slowing its descent and filling the plaza with a reptilian stench on a buffet of air. Its claws clicked against the flagstones as it landed.
On the draconic creature's back was the half-ogre who had ridden the wyvern to and from Blood and Fortune.
"What are you scum waiting for?" the rider bellowed, standing to his full impressive height in his stirrups and pointing. "Recapture those prisoners!"
The wyvern shrieked as if to punctuate its riders command, but its cry was cut short as a crossbow bolt whirred through the air and glanced off the tough armored scales of its snout.
"New crossbow," Sky apologized, reloading. "I'll get the next bolt in its mouth."
"Run?" Arthright asked from somewhere behind Kuhl.
"Run!" the half-elf confirmed. "Go!"
Any thought of fighting a delaying action evaporated as the wyvern scrabbled towards them, the wings attached to its forelimbs folded and its tail stinger raised behind it. Atop the advancing creature, the half-ogre pulled out a greatsword with glowing runes from a sheath on his mount.
"Thief!" Sophiya yelled. "That's my sword! My mother gave me that sword!"
Despite her protest, she screamed this over her shoulder as she ran.
"You heard Commander Sundeth!" the bald and bearded man yelled. "Stop them!"
Crossbows thwacked and bolts hissed through the air. They sailed high and to the right, however, several thunking into the wall of a building bordering the plaza. Kuhl suspected the poor aim of the crossbow men was influenced by their half-ogre commander and his wyvern mount being in pursuit of the fleeing group.
The half-elf heard the loosing of another crossbow just behind him followed by the humm of a missile's flight.
"Not fair" Sky complained, easily catching up with Kuhl after her attack. "I hit him, but some sort of magic deflected it!"
"The bastard has my ring of warding too," Sophiya huffed. "Probably has my ring of warmth as well. Bastard thief!"
"Must be nice having a genie mother," Esvele panted. "To have had all those items."
"Says the noblewoman," Claudio mumbled.
Which was a bit surprising since he was also the scion of a noble family.
Once they ran out of the plaza, the sources of light were lower in intensity - hanging oil lamps rather than magical glow globes - and more sporadic. Large, multistory buildings loomed on either side, it was hard to tell how many stories with the darkness and the crisscrossing catwalks overhead.
Ahead of them Xia tripped, stumbled, and righted herself.
"It's too dark," she complained, voice panicked. "I can't see."
"You can see," Esvele reassured with a calming tone. "Give your eyes time to adjust."
Not all of them possessed dark vision as he did, the half-elf realized. Which was a problem. A more immediate problem was the sound of wyvern claws clicking on stone, which was getting closer, despite their running.
"Ash!" Kuhl called out. "Turn! Down that alley!"
"It's not a…" the antlered boy began.
"Just do it!" the half-elf yelled, cutting the young druid off.
The clicking claws were almost on him as he brought up the rear. He could spin and arc a swing at the creature's neck and hopefully surprise it, but that was a wild hope. More than likely it would stinger him and then move on to run down the others.
Ash and Mite shared a look, shrugged, and veered off towards the alley. Alley was too generous of a description, it was more a narrow walkway between buildings. The antlered boy and goblin actually slipped a bit as in their effort to change direction and slip into the gap. One by one, the others followed - Raelyn, Sophiya, Xia, Esvele, Claudio, Arthright, Staget, and Sky.
A premonition told Kuhl to duck just before he joined the others in the alley. Something whistled over his head and thudded into the wall. The half-elf and saw the stinger tail of the wyvern retracting for another strike. He didn't give it a chance, practically diving into the narrow confines of the alley.
"Ugh," Sophiya said. "It reeks in here."
It really did. The garbage stink of the place made Kuhl want to gag.
"You'll get used to it," Sky said. "After a time in the Neverlight Grove, I barely noticed the smell there."
"Forget the smell!" the half-elf said. "Keep going!"
He turned toward the alley entrance and found the wyvern and it's rider staring balefully inside. As Kuhl had hoped, the draconic creature was too big to fit in the gap between the buildings.
Sundeth dismounted, great sword in hand, then hesitated. The half-elf could see the realization dawning on the brute's face. In the confines of the gap between the buildings the length of his great sword would be a liability, unlike Kuhl's short sword.
"You worthless maggots get your hides up here and bring those crossbows to bear!" the half-ogre screamed back at the following Xanathar enforcers.
The half-elf allowed himself a slight smile as he turned to run after the others. But the others hadn't gone anywhere.
"I said to keep going!" he said.
"There is nowhere to go," Esvele said, throwing up her hands. "It's a dead end!"
It was true. Skullport had been built with no rhyme, reason, or plan. In this case it had resulted in an alley that went nowhere and apparently was a convenient place to toss garbage.
"Not an alley I tried to say," said Ash. "But he wouldn't listen."
"I heard him try to say it," Mite confirmed.
"It's - fine," Staget said between gasping breaths. "I'd - rather - die - here - in - a - trash - heap - than - run - more."
"There is a door here," Sophiya said.
She pushed against an old door with no handle that looked like it hadn't been opened in years. The only thing that made sense for it being there was it had been there before the building next to it was even constructed.
"Barred from the inside," the genasi said.
She backed up and kicked it, tattoos sparking to give her strength.
"It gave!" she cried out. "A little!"
"Half-elf," Raelyn said, pushing past Kuhl to give him access to the door. "Help the genasi."
"Hurry!" the Sundeth bellowed to his men.
"Together on three," Sophiya said.
The door shuddered under their combined blow and whatever held it closed cracked. One more strike burst it open.
Outside the not-alley, the wyvern shrieked in protest.
The smell in the interior of the warehouse was so much better than the garbage stuffed alley - dried mushrooms, ale, wine, salt, pickled fish, spice, cooking oils, wool, leather, zurhkwood, and the underlying smell of dust. Hung lanterns on the walls dimly illuminated the vast space.
"Half-elf, genasi," Raelyn ordered. "Hold this door closed!"
She herself wove her way through the crates and barrels on the floor to throw down the crosspiece that would secure the man sized door to the street proper. The large double set of bay doors next to it were already barred.
A part of Kuhl bristled at being ordered around by the drow, yet everything she said and did made sense. Someone tried to push the door they had used to enter the warehouse open from the alley, but the combined strength of Sophiya and the half-elf easily kept it closed. The street door was also tried and whoever was out there, finding it locked, struck with monstrous strength. The door, frame and all, shuddered, but held.
Kuhl could guess the source of that blow.
"Help me!" Raelyn called out.
Captain Staget, Arthright, and Claudio ran to her. Xia watched with wide-eyed worry while Esvele, Ash, and Mite looked on more calmly.
"Open in the name of the Eye!" a voice yelled from the alley.
Another push came against the door, but once again, the half-elf and genasi held it closed.
"You can't be in here!" someone yelled.
Four human workers stared at them from inside the warehouse. They'd obviously stopped whatever they had been doing the moment they heard Kuhl and Raelyn breaking in. Three stood on the floor amid the crates and barrels and the fourth sat at a table holding a partially eaten meal.
"Cat girl, get a zurkhwood plank to secure the door the genasi and half-elf hold," the drow said, ignoring the protests of the workers.
"I'm a tabaxi," Sky said. "Not a cat girl."
But she sped off to the stack of zurkhwood planks in the corner.
"And it's Sophiya!" Sophiya yelled. "A month! A month in a cell together and she still has never used my name."
The last part was a frustrated mutter only Kuhl could hear.
"Do you know who owns this place?" one of the workers said, trying again. "You're dead!"
"I do not care who owns this place," Raelyn said, voice cold.
She'd left bracing the door and crossbeam against the shuddering blows of the half-ogre outside to the three humans and advanced on the warehouse workers, blade raised.
"Jak," one of the other workers said. "I think this is the genasi and drow who survived Blood and Fortune."
"You sure?" the one apparently named Jak asked.
"Do you know another genasi with red dyed hair and glowing tattoos wearing that outfit?" his coworker asked.
Besides Kuhl, Sophiya blew out a sigh and rolled her eyes. The door they held was tried again, but they kept it closed.
Meanwhile, knowledge of who they were dealing with brought compliance. The workers held up their hands.
"What do you want?" Jak asked.
"Is there another way out of here?" the drow said.
Collectively, the warehouse workers pointed upward. Above was a mezzanine level which contained another set of stairs to a trapdoor in the ceiling.
"The catwalks," Esvele said, nodding. "You're saying it is possible to jump to the catwalks from the roof?"
"Jump?" Jak said, confused. "There is no jumping. We use a pulley system to deliver pickups directly from the roof. You can just step right onto the hanging walkways."
There was a pulley system, connected to a platform on the warehouse floor. A much bigger trap door, similar to the bay doors facing the street, was at the top of the pulley system in the ceiling.
"Even better," the noblewoman said, but actually sounded disappointed there would be no jumping.
Sky returned, bearing a zurkhwood plank.
"This should fit," she said.
The tabaxi pulled aside the remains of the old cross piece Sophiya and Kuhl had broken and fit in the new zurkhwood one.
Blows landed against both doors, the one facing the street with the half-ogre on the other side of it making the walls, let alone the doors and the door frame, shudder. But so far, both portals held and Sky's new crossbeam worked.
"Can we go now?" Xia pleaded. "That door isn't going to hold much longer."
She pointed at the door being assaulted by the half-ogre, and she was right.
"Neither is my shoulder!" Staget complained.
The two youths bracing the door with him, nodded.
"Quickly then," Raelyn said. "You four show us the way out."
"Us?" Jak asked.
The drow only answered with only a raised sword and a non-swollen shut, red-pupiled glare. This was enough to get the workers jogging up the steps. Kuhl's group followed, those bracing the door going last. They'd only made it to the mezzanine level when they heard the crossbeam holding out the half-ogre crack.
"Get that trapdoor open!" Raelyn ordered.
It was done and they all had just exited to the roof level as a roar of rage came up from below. Sundeth was in the warehouse. Kuhl looked around, liking what he saw. A hanging catwalk was secured to the roof, easily accessible, and the crisscrossing suspended walkways meant the wyvern could not fly up here, its wingspan being too great.
"I can barely see," Claudio said. "It's dark up here."
It was much darker than street level and once again Kuhl saw that groups moving on the suspended walkways all carried their own light sources.
"Is there a way out of Skullport from up here," Raelyn asked.
Surprisingly it was Jak who answered.
"The Whispers Haunt Pass," he said. "But it is up one level."
"There is another level above?" Staget said, looking up, voice amazed.
"He is right," Ash confirmed. "The Whisper Haunt."
"First Shadow Pass," Xia whined. "Now Whisper Haunt. Isn't there a Rainbow Pass we can take?"
"We've got a problem!" Esvele said. "I don't see a way to lock the trap door from out here!"
"Why would there be?" Jak asked.
Since owners would want to keep unwanted people out of the warehouse and not in, it was a valid point.
"Look for something heavy to drag on top of the trap door," Kuhl said.
But a glance around the roof revealed nothing that would work.
"The kenku are coming!" Sky warned, shouldering her crossbow.
Despair filled the half-elf as he looked the way the tabaxi aimed. Coming down the walkway was the group of reinforcements he had seen earlier. Of course the Xanathar would know they could flee to the rooftop and of course a force would be sent to head off that escape route. Strangely the man with the hoop earring lagged his avian companions, he seemed out of breath and wheezing, which did not match his lean, whipcord build.
"Red Sky in the Morning!" one of the kenku yelled. "You better stop pointing that crossbow at me!"
Kuhl remembered the way the kenku they fought in the warehouse in Waterdeep spoke, with a conglomeration of imitated voices. This kenku did not speak this way. It actually sounded a lot like…"
"Jhelnae?" Sky said, lowering her crossbow, tail lashing.
"Sophiya!" Another kenku yelled in a deep masculine voice. "What on the Nine Hells are you wearing? That looks like something mom might wear."
"Please tell me those are not my father's scales!" another of the kenku spoke, this one with a reptilian hissing lisp. "They better not be!"
"Arcane lock on the trap door cast," yet another of the kenku spoke, this one with a smooth cultured voice. "Since none of the rest of you thought to cast it."
"Vorskar?" the genasi said, unconsciously imitating Sky's confused tone. "Embrie? Jassin?"
At that moment, a heavy blow struck the trap door from below. It made Kuhl jump, but not as much as when the next kenku spoke with Aleina's voice.
"Kuhl Nightstar! You are one dead half-elf!"
First off, after doing some research on Harko Swornhold (who Mirt impersonates), I remembered he has a canon connection for recruiting kenku. So I changed the disguise of the others with him to kenku (rather than bugbears).
The last half of this is rough. Just last night, I highlighted half of my almost completed chapter and hit the delete button. Then I wrote this new half in a marathon layover for a work trip. I have no idea if it works or not, but it flowed for me much better than the other previous attempt was going.
Just want to get it out of my mind so I can get to other stuff (including reading Cyrus J's next chapter, which I assume is waiting for me!).