They were in a tight bind. The brigand Udi was still climbing up the ladder that left the mines after dropping the firecracker that had alerted whoever was deeper in the structure of this underground lair. If Udi was to be believed, there were two others who’d just been made aware of their presence: the brigand’s boss, and the unknown man who had hired them.

  Jarod assessed their options. They certainly had the numbers advantage if it came to a fight, but there was no telling how powerful the others would be. The two brigands that they’d fought had been strong and clever enough to severely injure himself, and for another to escape. The others might be even more dangerous.

  Escaping up the ladder seemed like a gamble, especially with all the people they had in tow. Plus, Udi could easily throw rocks down the shaft at them if they tried to follow him. That just left a retreat back into the mines, but a fight would be even more inevitable then, and would give their attackers a chance to be on their guard once they noticed Udi and Cari gone.

  “Udi, was that you? Quit making all that racket. You know Ionda needs it quiet down here.” The same deep voice as before echoed off the stone walls. They might not have long to make their decision.

  The first thing Jarod did was quaff the health potion that he’d taken from the prison room in the mines.

  Health potion (minor)

  [4]+2

  Health: 7/10

  Grievous injury cured

  Immediately, Jarod felt a pulse coming from his shoulder where the brigand had cut him deep. Tendons and muscle fibers were grasped by microscopic magical hooks, and drawn across the open wound back into place again. Blood coagulated, then scabbed, then fell away, all in seconds, leaving his shoulder without even a scar.

  He gave his left arm a couple of tentative rolls and swapped his shortsword to it to make sure it could still bear weight. Everything seemed as good as new. He spied another buckler among the gear scattered about the room, and nabbed it in preparation for an inevitable fight.

  Jarod was saved the pain of having to make a choice when Nikolao assumed his role as their makeshift leader. The surveyor gestured at their group of rescued prisoners as well as Tex’ana.

  “You all go back into the mines, quick,” said Nikolao. “Hide in the first branch you see so you’re out of sight. As soon as you hear fighting, get out here and we’ll pincer in from both sides. If we’re lucky, we’ll only have to take one at a time.”

  As the group ran off, he turned to address their remaining number: Filgrin, Basma, and Jarod. “We’ll sneak down the hallway and hide in the first room we find. As soon as they walk past us into the room with the ladder, we’ll jump out and surprise them from behind.” He was already moving, even as he began the explanation. As they broke off from the rest of their group, he stooped down to pick up a dirk lying next to one of the bedrolls, and handed it to Basma. “And take this. As long as you don’t stab yourself, we’ll be in a better position than without it.”

  Jarod followed the surveyor away from the straw bedding and loose equipment of the entry chamber to the clean stone floors of the passage beyond. The stark contrast between the rough walls of the mineshaft and the carved stonework of the other half was even more pronounced down the hallway. If Jarod hadn’t descended the 200 foot ladder himself, he might think he was one of the stone dwarf homes he’d seen the time he visited Chath.

  The dark grey stone walls of the underground had been carved to look like giant flagstones piled atop each other, but rather than mortar, it was just indentations carved into the wall. The stone was smooth and polished, and there were smaller markings carved in lines that flowed up and down, winding around the larger grooves of the faux flagstones. These markings looked like letters or runes, but they weren’t in the common language Jarod was familiar with.

  The hallway was long, nearly 300 feet, and illuminated by the same constant orange lighting of those magical torches. It was more obvious in the hallway that the torches and their holders must have been a later addition. They were spaced in irregular intervals, some even at different heights, placed so as to avoid damaging any of the runes that ran along the border.

  There were several stone doors that lined the hallways, but they didn’t have time right now to inspect any of them. Nikolao peered into the nearest door on their right, which was cracked open. Not seeing anyone inside, he pushed it open on smooth hinges, and led the group inside. He was careful to leave it cracked just as it had been before, letting them hear as the voice continued to call out, asking questions of presumed accomplices.

  The room they’d stepped into looked to be a library of sorts, but no books lined the walls. Instead, an angled lattice of stone slots filled with scrolls lined every wall. The library must have been intended during construction, because the scroll shelves weren’t separate pieces of furniture, they were carved into the very rock walls.

  Jarod’s attention was not on the contents of the library though, it was on the voice outside, deep and speaking loud enough to be heard plainly even through the door only slightly ajar. A gravely thud suddenly resounded from down the hallway. Clicking footsteps from boots with hard soles started walking down the hallway.

  “Look what you’ve done now, you’ve gone and disturbed Ionda,” the voice from before called out.

  “Gods man, are you drunk?” said another voice, strained and nasally.

  “Just a glass of brandy,” came the reply. “And unlike you, I can hold my liquor.”

  Silence for a beat, then the nasally voice spoke again. “Come on, we’d best investigate. Could be another quirk of the ruins.”

  The footsteps began again, quickly drawing close down the hallway. The one who’d be called Ionda was muttering under his breath faintly as he walked. When he got closer, they could hear he was speculating on the source of the bang.

  “... maybe a delayed magic that reacts some time after I’ve activated the runes. Or something to do with lunar phases perhaps…”

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  Ionda speculating on magical explanations was a good sign. It meant that he wouldn’t suspect that the source was a warning from another brigand.

  The footsteps were past them now. Right as they should have been stepping into the entry chamber, Nikolao signaled the group with a jerk of his head, and he pushed the door quietly open.

  Athletics (stealth) check (2, 8)

  [3]+1

  Partial success

  The party of four slipped out of the library, one after another, quickly rounding the corner to confront the brigand leader and the man who’d hired them. Walking without concern into the entry chamber were the two figures they’d heard.

  The first one was a giant of a man. He must have been close to 7 feet tall, built like a bear. He wore a bandolier of knives of all different sorts. Many were thick hunting knives, but he also bore throwing knives, daggers, and a tiny multi-pronged blade.

  The other man was tiny in comparison. Skinny, with the hunched shoulders of a scholar who looked over too many books. His hands were held close to his chest, and he was nervously fidgeting with something they couldn’t see. Jarod noticed a pouch around his waist similar to the one he’d seen the Ludericks carry around. He must have been a magic user of some sort.

  As Nikolao led their group into the entry chamber, the two men were caught unawares. They turned around to the dull thumps of the group’s footfalls on the stone floor, and had just enough time for eyes to widen and for hands to raise instinctively, before Nikolao screamed out a battle cry and brought his blade down alongside Jarod.

  Roll to hit

  Shortsword: [5]+1

  Hit for [4]+1 damage

  Jarod found his mark on the man that must have been Travis, while Nikolao and Filgrin each landed a hit on Ionda. Basma made a tentative thrust with the dirk, but her untrained hand missed its mark, and she took a nervous step back.

  Jarod’s group may have been the first to act, but Travis and Ionda recovered quickly. Travis drew two knives from his bandolier, throwing one at Filgrin, while slashing down with the other one against Jarod.

  Hit for [4] damage.

  Health: 3/10

  The knife thrown at Filgrin sailed wide and clattered against the stone wall, but Jarod was unprepared for the quick flurry of action, and took a slash across his previously-injured shoulder.

  As the giant figure of the brigand kept swinging with defensive slashes to keep the party on their toes, Ionda reached into the pouch around his waist and snatched out a bit of golden twine folded into a complicated knot. He tore the knot in two, like he would a sheet of paper, and a shimmering outline appeared behind him. It looked like his shadow, only cast onto the air, and glowing golden instead of black. He stepped backwards into it, and suddenly shot back another 30 feet, like he’d been yanked with a whip.

  In less than a second, Ionda was standing by the entrance to the mineshaft, well away from the four who’d sprung from the library to surprise him.

  “Contemptible fools,” he said. “You’ve interrupted research of more powerful secrets than you could ever understand in your worthless lives.”

  He reached into his pouch again, this time procuring something too small for Jarod to make out in the midst of the action. Ionda reared back melodramatically, and threw whatever it was across the chamber where it impacted with a tink against the back wall. Immediately, unholy screams rang out behind Jarod, and he felt cold limbs grasp for his arms.

  Athletics check (6)

  [2]+1

  Failure

  Two pairs of hands were too much for Jarod to pull himself away from. Long arms with grasping, tremorous fingers wrapped him up, and pulled him against the wall. Jarod felt a coldness against his back, like icy water that chilled his bones. The screams kept crying out, terrifying, yet muffled as though heard from the other side of a wall. Beside him, Basma and Filgrin had also been caught, though he saw Nikolao dodge one last nab at his arm with a spin.

  Long arms entrapped the three of them, but so too did another long arm suddenly appear by the magic user. This one with a glaive in front of it. Tex’ana whipped around the corner, the other half of the ambush had been hiding behind, and extended to his full height in the tall entry chamber. He was silent in his movements until the telltale double shink of his glaive as he stabbed down into Ionda.

  Ionda shrieked in pain, a gargle already rising in his throat. His chest pitched forward and his arms splayed out wildly, dropping whatever object he’d been fiddling with when he’d first come into the entry chamber. The magic user whirled around, backed into a corner of the room as his only escape from their two-pronged attack. His eyes were wild, realizing his predicament.

  Meanwhile, Jarod still trashed around, trying to break free of the arms, even as Travis bore down on him. Realizing the effort it would take to break free, he instead raised his shield, readying himself for the man’s attacks.

  Defensive stance

  [1]+1

  Penalty score: 2

  Ally penalty score: 1

  Basma had managed to break free and darted in for a quick attack at the hulking man’s legs, while Filgrin beside him had somehow brought his bow up and loosed an arrow. Both of them managed to land a hit, as well as Nikolao, but attacks didn’t distract the giant brigand from his targets still restrained against the wall.

  Defensive penalty applied

  Penalty score: 0

  Defensive penalty applied

  Ally penalty score: 0

  Jarod brought up his buckler to deflect a thrust from the man’s hunting knife, which instead drove into one of the grasping arms. The arm flung about wildly in pain, but did not draw back. At the same time, Travis flung another throwing knife at Filgrin. Jarod’s shield was distracted, but by sheer luck, he managed to thrust out his longsword in time, deflecting the knife against the flat of his blade.

  Across the room, Ionda’s eyes had hardened with resolve, and he spoke, addressing the whole room. “I don’t know who sent you, but you won’t kill me, not when I’ve come so far. These ruins may be my last chance to save myself.”

  He turned to Travis, clutching a vial he’d procured from his pouch. “You lot have been terrible. It’s no wonder you failed me,” he said. He pitched his head back and downed whatever was in the vial. His form shifted again, taking on a blue sheen and becoming slightly translucent. Every movement left cloudy rolls of mist in his wake. With a speed nearly as great as his earlier streak across the room Ionda flew off the ground, up to the ceiling, and then up the ladder, leaving pinwheels of mist behind him.

  The magic user escaped from their ambush as Travis’s screams followed him away from the mines, away from the violence yet to come.