It took another hour for them to navigate their way past all of the sentries and spot the kobold encampment. After finally setting their eyes on it, it would be better to describe it as a town or small city. He wasn’t sure what the threshold was. Alan had been able to put his crystal away long ago as the tunnels here were lit with their own. The cavern they finally found themselves standing in was enormous.
The ceiling in the cavern was so high that they couldn’t see it beyond the glow of the many large crystals providing light to the sprawling town. That meant it was at least fifty meters in the air. The cavern was rectangular in shape and the side they were on stretched almost a kilometer. The shorter walls were at least five hundred meters. The town itself didn’t take up nearly this much room which is why they were able to observe it from inside the cavern. Plenty of dark nooks could be found along the jagged sides.
The town had a rock wall around it, but this one was much better built than the one around the smaller camp. It was almost two meters high and was made up of large stones stacked together with smaller stones filling in the gaps. There were no kobolds patrolling the walls or manning the few gates they spotted. The town was about five hundred meters long and two hundred meters wide. This place could house a thousand of the creatures easily, and possibly as many as three or four thousand.
“How could there be a settlement like this and we haven’t seen them before?” Thadrick asked in a whisper.
“If they hadn’t attacked the mining camp you might have never known they were here. We’ve traveled for over half a day and it was only recently that we encountered any of them.”
Thadrick couldn’t take his eyes off the many kobolds running around both inside and outside the wall. “Still, there’s no way we’ll be able to attack this place. Even if every warrior we had fought like you.”
The compliment embarrassed Alan. “Let’s see if we can tell if the captured villagers are even here. Maybe they’ve been transferred somewhere else,” he suggested.
Half an hour later they could confirm that the prisoners were still here. There was an area near the wall that contained over a hundred cages. More than half of them were empty, but the others held the missing villagers and some other creatures that he did not remember seeing in their mining camp.
“Gnomes,” said Thadrick. “But their skin is darker than I am used to seeing. They look just as bad off as our people.”
Alan told him to stay at the edge of the cavern as he made his way closer. There wasn’t much cover in the two hundred meters to the wall, but there also weren’t any guards scanning the area. Occasional sentries walked around the town, but he had timed his passage to avoid them. He finally found himself crouching below the wall. His clothes were covered in rock dust by now so they blended in well with the stones, however if a sentry passed nearby he would be easily seen. That meant he only had about three minutes before he had to start back. He had already marked a collection of small boulders he would try to hide in if he didn’t have time to make it all the way back.
This was the riskiest part of the endeavor. The rocks of the wall, while not a fine specimen of stone masonry, were too well fitted to peer through. He would have to climb up and look over the top. His head would be exposed but there was nothing for it. He had to hope that any guards would be watching the prisoners or the town and not the wall. He found a handhold and two footholds that should let him boost himself high enough and went for it.
After a minimum of scrambling he had his head above the wall and did a quick check to see if he had been exposed. The cage area had two levels and was in the shape of a semicircle with the center facing the town. The cages on the bottom seemed to be made from heavier materials like stone with ropes providing the walls. The upper section was made from wood, large bones, and possibly some type of bamboo. Ropes were also heavily relied on. These cages were not particularly well made, but with the deplorable state the prisoners were in, there was probably little they could do to take advantage of it on their own.
There were several kobolds in the area. A group of three was standing by what passed for a street that ran along the prison front. Two more were walking back and forth in front of the prisoners. Thankfully none of them seemed invested in their job and their eyes never looked to the wall. He spent another minute counting prisoners and seeing if anything in the area changed.
There were thirty-four villagers and twelve of the dark gnomes. With so many of the missing villagers here it meant that there shouldn’t be any kept somewhere else and those that were missing were most likely dead. There was no change in the guards but he had also only been observing for a couple of minutes. He did notice that the area around the prison was somewhat devoid of kobolds. The only ones he saw were across the street working on building some kind of stone stage.
Alan carefully dropped down and hurriedly made his way to the space between the boulders, he was out of time. He didn’t dare peek out but he could hear the claws of the sentries scrape against the rocky floor as they walked by. He wouldn’t call it marching as they did not seem to possess the discipline of real troops. From all he had seen they were more like barely trained dogs. He was beginning to wonder how they had managed this entire operation.
Counting to sixty after they passed he finally poked his head out and scanned for observers. Finding none he scurried back to Thadrick and explained the situation. He was relieved to hear that so many of his people were still alive, but the older warrior despaired of helping them.
“If we waited for the others coming behind us, do you think we could make a sudden assault and carry our people away?” he asked.
Alan thought for only a moment before replying. “If we could get them here there might be a chance, but remember all of those kobolds we had to avoid in the tunnels. That’s possible for two people to circumvent, but not forty or fifty, or however many are following us. The town would be alerted and there would be no chance of a rescue attempt.”
Thandrick’s eyes turned dark with hopelessness. “Even if we could, I suppose at best it would mean a long march back carrying wounded while under constant assault.”
Alan felt for his friend. Not only could this spell the end of his own Network quest, but it meant Thadrick would have to walk away empty handed after coming so close and actually seeing his friends and fellow villagers. He placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder and squeezed it to offer comfort. As Alan stood there a crazy idea started to form in his mind.
“Maybe there is a way we could do this. How far behind us do you think our fellows will be?”
Thadrick thought about it for a while. “They probably can’t move as fast as us being in such a large group, but they won’t have to spend as long trying to read tracks through the tunnels. I would guess they have made slightly better time than us unless they ran into some kind of large-scale attack. I would say they are anywhere from four to six hours behind us.”
“You have a better understanding of how tunnel systems work down here. Let’s say the kobolds were chasing us, how likely is it that they could use the various tunnel branches we saw to get around us?” Alan asked.
“Understand I have no more knowledge of these specific tunnels than you do, but they are usually not like paths in the woods. Tunnels tend to be long and are not usually redundant. It is possible that some paths go in the same direction as the one we would take, but it would probably be a very convoluted path. If we kept moving at a decent pace it should be very hard for them to get ahead of us through a connecting tunnel.”
“That’s what I was hoping to hear.” Alan said with rising excitement.
“You sound like you have a plan. Knowing you, I would guess it's something crazy?”
Over the next several minutes he explained his plan. Thadrick offered some suggestions to make it better and they soon got started. The good news was that the plan required them to wait several hours before making their first move so they had plenty of time to prepare. They wanted to rescue the prisoners before the attack force came in range of the scouts around the town, but they also wanted the group close enough that they could get to them relatively quickly to help provide support once they had freed the captives.
Unfortunately the first part of the plan involved collecting a lot of materials. Thadrick was not the stealthiest fellow so this task was left for Alan. The tunnels in the area were lit with the many crystal lights the kobolds used so his lack of darkvision would not be a problem. He smiled as he used Thadrick’s axe to cut down some of the trees they had seen in one of the grottos. The dwarf’s face when he had told him what he would use it for was priceless.
He was less happy as he tore his tunic into strips for bandages and then washed and soaked them in one of the pools they had passed. Thadrick was kind enough to donate a couple of tunics he kept in his storage as well. Alan also had to collect some of the moss he had identified on their way down as having healing properties. That herbology skill had come in handy several times already. All of those went into his storage and he made his way back to the town.
He and Thadrick sat down and prepared for their rescue mission. Thadrick was tasked with making a ladder from the branches and sticks of the tree Alan had cut down. The two rescuers wouldn’t have much trouble crossing the wall, but the prisoners would not be in good shape and would require help to quickly get over it. Alan spent his time grinding the moss into a paste and spreading it on as many of the bandages as he could. He didn’t know what kind of shape they would be in, other than poor, and so he needed medical supplies to patch them up the best he could. Their plan relied on the villagers being able to move under their own power, so he needed them in the best shape he could get. With so many of them, his healing spell would only be able to help a few. He also made some splints with the remains of his old outfit and more of the wood he had gathered. He hadn’t wanted to use those filthy things as bandages since they would lead to infection, but that was less of an issue for a splint.
They finally had everything prepared but still had about twenty minutes before the agreed on start time so they went over the plan again. Alan knew it by heart, but in the special forces you went over your plan time and time again until it was burned into your mind.
“Once we get to the wall we should be okay to drop down and make our way to the back of the cages. The kobolds only seem to be looking for obvious things. Even the ones working across the way probably won’t notice anything is wrong unless they actually see us fighting or dead kobolds lying around.”
“You still think you’ll be able to take out the front group of guards before they can shout a warning?” Thadrick worriedly asked.
“If I can get close before they see me I shouldn’t have a problem. The hardest part is going to be taking out the two that are walking by the prisoners’ cages. You can get one of them if we time everything right but it still leaves one I’ll have to deal with before he notices the fate of his friends. It also means moving the bodies before anyone else sees anything.”
As they went over the rest of their plan it started to seem less and less like a good idea. It would take luck, skill, and probably a bit of divine intervention to pull off, but the idea of leaving the prisoners to die was not something Alan wanted to live with. ‘No man left behind’ was a great slogan but it couldn’t always be achieved. Leaving a dead or wounded operator had always left a bad taste in his mouth.
Finally it was time for them to go. Without actually making contact with the force following behind them they couldn’t time it exactly. If they went too early they would have a long trek ahead of them before meeting up with their allies, but if they waited too long they would have no chance of pulling it off. Hoping they had guessed right, Alan waited until the nearest sentry group moved past and then they were both sprinting for the wall. Luckily they could just keep the ladder in their storage items and they wouldn’t have to lug it on their backs.
Even though Alan had higher dexterity he was only just ahead of his dwarven friend as the importance of their mission kept his stout legs churning. Alan gave him a boost and Thadrick was quickly over the wall. A quiet whistle sent him climbing over shortly after. That was the easiest part. Now for the difficult part. They didn’t dare get too close to the cages because the prisoners might give them away. Alan wasn’t really worried that someone was a traitor, but an involuntary gasp could ruin everything.
Only a minute was allowed for them to get their bearings. The guard situation looked the same, three out front and one walking on each level by the cages. They had gotten some good fortune because the two roving guards were on almost opposite ends. That would give them the best chance at pulling this off. When the two guards walked back and were almost even with each other Alan sprang into action.
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He had the farthest to go and could only pray that none of the three out front would look back at him. He wasn’t coming directly from behind the cages, he had made his way over to a small stone building that was next to the prison. When Alan was halfway there Thadrick took off for his own assignment. Fate was on their side because the guards were so bored with their dull duty that they were watching the construction on the other side of the street.
Alan arrived like a thunderbolt. He had his gladius in his right hand and his seax in his left. He had been trying to stay low to the ground to give the smallest target for them to notice, but he launched himself forward when he was a few meters out. His first blow sliced the nearest guard’s head off and continuing to turn he sliced deeply into the second guard’s throat with his seax. That kobold could only gurgle as he drowned in his own blood. His momentum carried him past the third guard, who died when Alan’s gladius drove straight through its snout and into its brain, having never realized it was under attack.
At the same time Thandrick took out the nearest wandering guard as it turned at the bottom of the cages, getting ready to head back. His axe sliced the kobold in half right through its lungs. This left the last guard who was on the far end facing away from them. It was just about to complete its trip and head back this way. If it did, their rescue was doomed as it would quickly notice the bloodshed and sound an alarm.
Honestly Alan was surprised it had gone so well so far, but the next part was what made him the most nervous. He crouched down and placed his weapons silently on the ground. It would have been embarrassing to give the game away by letting them clang loudly on the rocky floor alerting the nearby laborers. Next he pulled his hand crossbow out of his ring, already loaded.
He had not had much time to practice with it since he got it from the undead labyrinth, but it was their best chance of taking down the guard without alerting anyone. Alan could have tried using one of his spells, but they were all rather flashy and would draw unwanted attention. Breathing out he lined up the shot. The kobold paused to turn and he let his missile fly. If it had been a larger crossbow he would have felt better about his chances, but it would take a lucky break to take down the kobold with the smaller bolt. Alan was thankful for even the minimal practice he had gotten with the thing while making his way to the dungeon from his house.
In a blink the small metal tipped shaft crossed the distance and buried itself in the neck of the kobold as it turned. It kept it from giving the alarm but didn’t kill it instantly. Instead it fell back against the cage on the end which held one of the gnomish prisoners. In a shocking display of strength and dexterity the gnome pulled the fatally injured creature against the rope bars and yanked the bolt out and stabbed it back into the guard’s eye.
This was two more checks on their list. They hadn’t known ahead of time if the mystery gnomes would work with them or not, and their own people had managed not to give them away yet. Most hadn’t realized anything was happening. The next step was to quickly clear the dead kobolds which they did by dragging them behind the cages. Alan was able to pick up the three he killed with his impressive strength and Thadrick easily pulled his behind the cage. For some reason you couldn’t put dungeon monster bodies in spatial storage. The gnome up top pulled the kobold he finished off into his cage leaving only minimal evidence of the slaughter. There was quite a lot of blood in places, but if someone came close enough to spot that against the rocky floor then they were in trouble anyway.
Thadrick quickly made his way along the back of the cages, reassuring everyone they were there to rescue them. By now word had been passed among the prisoners that something was happening. It was up to Alan to talk to the gnomes. He guessed that they would want to be rescued, but he didn’t know if they would want to go all the way back to the mining camp with them.
“I don’t have a lot of time, so I need to know, do you want out of here?” Alan asked the one who had helped kill the guard.
“Of course human, it is death if we stay,” he snapped back.
“Ok, but we are taking the rest of these people with us back to their home far from here. Do you want to go with us or make your own way?”
“If you can get us into the tunnels we can make our own way. We are not scared of these runty dragon wannabes. The only reason they caught us is we were on an expedition away from our kin and they surrounded us with over a hundred of theirs.” The gnome in the next cage answered.
“Agreed, if you can get us out of here we will go our own way. Maybe some of these kobolds will follow us giving you a better chance,” The first gnome added.
Alan then went from cage to cage slicing through the rope bars on the back, but the prisoners didn’t try to climb out. Everyone had to stay in their cages for now or someone might notice that all of the prisoners were gone. Thadrick was doing the same on the bottom level.
At each cage Alan stopped and asked if the prisoner could walk on their own and if they had any major injuries. It took time now but doing this now would hopefully pay it back by improving the rate they could move through the tunnels. Each person would need to be able to move on their own or they would be quickly caught.
Bandage after bandage was used to bind wounds, luckily few of them were serious. The kobolds had seemed to want to keep them alive for now. A few had broken arms that received a splint but one of the dwarves required a splint for her broken leg. She would hopefully not slow them down too much.
After ‘unlocking’ all of the top cages and dealing with their wounds he moved to the bottom cages while Thadrick shifted to the next phase. He took out the ladder from his storage and placed it against the wall. A second ladder that he had managed to make while waiting for the operation to start was placed next to the first. Alan then signaled to prisoners from different places in the top row to come over to him. They didn’t want a large section of empty cages so they spread out the eight that had been chosen so far.
Alan continued tending to the wounds as fast as possible while Thadrick explained what they were supposed to do. When he gave the signal they would all use the ladders to get over the wall as fast as possible and head to the alcove he and Alan had found near the exit. The exit they had chosen was not the same one they came in at, but Alan had already scouted the route to connect it to their path back home. This exit had the benefit of both being near the prison and it was seemingly little used. There were no gates into the town near here so few kobolds found it convenient.
The first group was given the signal and over they went. This first group was also chosen with several that Alan had identified as being in the best shape. They had been given the dead kobolds’ swords so that they could defend themselves in case of attack. If it came to that the whole thing was probably screwed, but it made the prisoners feel like they had something to do. And who knows, maybe there would only be one or two and they could kill them before they were able to alert anyone else. The scouts’ absence would eventually be noticed, but by that point the prison break would have already been discovered anyway.
Alan had been forced to use his healing spell twice on the bottom row. One was on a dwarf who had received a nasty wound on his arm that was leaking pus and the other was on a gnome whose leg had been mangled. The dwarf’s arm healed and the infection cleared right up. He was shocked by the sudden transformation, but Alan was already working on the gnome. He first had to set the bones properly before he could heal them. His spell could shift bones some, but it used far less energy if the bones were already in place allowing him to almost completely restore the limb with one casting.
Thadrick had already called over the second group of prisoners. They would relieve the first eight who were already in the alcove and send them into the exit tunnel. The new group would then recover in the alcove while waiting for the next. These people had been fed little recently and marched hard, their energy reserves were low and they would unfortunately be called on to use them a lot shortly. The rest they got now, and the little bit of food Thadrick and Alan had to share, would hopefully be enough to hold them over till they were safe. Or safer, maybe. Alan was just finishing up splinting the last prisoner's arm when Thadrick signaled him to come quickly.
“Bad news Alan, there are two more prisoners,” He told him.
“How is that bad news?” Alan asked.
It was the dwarf next to Thadrick who answered. It took Alan a moment to recognize Thadrick’s friend Bodvar from his first trip in the dungeon. “The kobolds took two of the young human women and put them in that building over there.”
He pointed at the small stone structure that Alan had used for cover before, and he wasn’t done. “That’s not the worst of it. Kobolds ain't all ya gotta worry ‘bout. There was a much taller creature in a hooded cloak who was leading this group. He was waiting in the raiding camp we were first taken to and when the few survivors from their failed raid came back he ordered them to pack up and marched us here. He lives in that building.”
“We can’t leave anyone behind. Alan, you lead these prisoners here, I’ll go in and free our other people,” Thadrick declared in a whisper.
“These people know you, not me. They’ll listen to and trust you better. Plus, if you go in there you’ll likely raise a racket that will bring the whole town down on us. You know I have to be the one to go,” Alan argued back.
Thadrick reluctantly agreed and Alan made his way over double time. If there was someone in that building now, they could come out at any time and ruin everything. It wasn’t only important to free the last two prisoners but he had to make sure they weren’t discovered until all the prisoners were free and on the move.
He checked the building out quickly but it only seemed to have the entrance in the front and no windows. He checked the progress at the cages, about half of the prisoners had been evacuated already, and then he checked the laborers across the way. Whatever they were building was quite a structure. It was made of a dark type of stone and looked like some kind of altar. There was a large viewing area in front of it, almost fifty meters across, which was the only reason they hadn’t been discovered. When none of the laborers were looking his way, he made his move.
He took five steps around the corner and waited by the side of the doorway. There was no door, only an empty opening. He was exposed waiting here, but only if someone was really paying attention. His dirt covered tunic was long gone, made into bandages, so he was bare chested, but his sweat had caused him to be covered in a gray sludge from moving through the tunnels and crawling over walls. It provided at least a small amount of camouflage. What was more important now was checking out what he was about to jump into.
His head shot out and back as he took in the interior at a glance. It appeared there was a small entry room which was currently empty. He ducked inside and heard some strange noises coming from further in. He repeated the process with the next door. A horrifying sight awaited him. He saw one young woman, her clothes in tatters, chained in the corner. The second was currently lying on her back on a bed with her arms chained to opposite posts. A naked humanoid man was kneeling in front of her. Alan couldn’t exactly see what was going on, but he didn’t really need to. The sick bastard would pay for this. He stared at the back of the figure to see what he was dealing with.
Oshae: Drow, Swordsman, Threat level: extreme
This was bad. He had learned from talking to both Tamee and Dracon that all races started with the same eight classes, and swordsman wasn’t one of them. That meant that this drow, which was some kind of dark elf if he remembered correctly, had at least an opal class. The only saving grace was that he didn’t seem to have any equipment at the moment and he was distracted.
Alan already had both of his daggers out figuring that a sword would be harder to use inside a house. It was lucky he did because somehow the drow realized he was there. He spun off the bed and a sword suddenly appeared in his hand. It looked like some type of katana and he brought his other hand over to grip it properly. This guy must have some kind of spatial storage, maybe the necklace he was wearing. It was the only thing he had on him at the moment.
Now that he was facing him, Alan could better make out what he was dealing with. The drow had shoulder length white hair with long pointy ears sticking out of it. He was taller than Alan by at least ten centimeters and was well muscled. That made sense for what appeared to be a fighter based class.
“I don’t know who you are but you’ll pay for ruining my sport.” The dark elf’s voice was cold, but also higher pitched than he would have thought.
Alan didn’t waste time with words and instead sent a prismatic orb into his face and moved in. They were inside a building so he didn’t need to worry about observers and could really unleash himself. However, there were two prisoners in the small room so he couldn’t use his more powerful spells for fear of collateral damage.
Unfortunately the orb only disoriented the elf for a second. His higher level quickly overcame the effects. In that time Alan had barely gotten into position, but it did allow him to already have started to stab out at the drow before he even knew where Alan was. He reacted quickly but only managed to twist his torso slightly so that instead of getting stabbed in the kidneys he took a nasty slice to his side.
“You dare?” the drow roared. Alan needed to end this before he drew any attention. Without any doors blocking the entrances, someone might hear the yelling. First blood had been drawn but it was only slightly worse than a flesh wound and now his opponent was counter attacking.
The drow was fast in addition to being strong, but it didn’t seem like he had an actual dexterity class as Alan could move slightly faster. He was able to deflect the blows but he was being put more and more on the defensive. Prismatic orb would be even less effective a second time with the drow being ready for it, so he tried something different. The elf sliced across with his sword and for the first time Alan fully blocked with both daggers. The drow was stronger, but Alan had countered enough of the momentum that he could now step inside the attack and send an elbow into the swordsman's midriff. That was just to throw him off balance, Alan’s other hand pointed toward his head and he sent out three small light bolts into the elf’s face.
These small light bolts could only do a tiny amount of damage, but with three at once the drow felt like he was getting punched in the face and he clearly wasn’t expecting it. Alan followed up with his seax which slashed him across the waist. Without any armor or even clothing the blade opened him up and his intestines spilled out. The drow opened his mouth to scream but Alan’s pugio punched up through his jaw and into his brain, shutting him up permanently.
In a hurry, and not really wanting to face what he was seeing, he dove into the rescue tasks. “Don’t worry ladies, we are here to rescue you. More help is on the way. Do you know where he kept the key to your chains?”
The girl in the corner answered, pushing through the shock of what had just happened. “He kept it in his necklace.”
Alan hadn’t ever taken someone else’s spatial storage item so he wasn’t sure how it would work. He pulled it over the dead drow’s head and noticed it was made of what looked like puka shells. He placed it around his own neck and tried to access its inventory but nothing happened. He tried to link to it with his energy but it rebuffed him.
“You have to put a drop of your blood on it,” said the girl from the bed in a raggedy voice.
He pricked his finger and rubbed the blood on the necklace. It was somehow sucked into the necklace materials and then he was able to access the space inside. There was a lot of stuff in there, it seemed to be much bigger than his ring even, but he quickly found a key. Taking it out he turned to unlock the girl on the bed. He tried to look anywhere but at her body, hoping to give her some sense of privacy. It was hard to avoid noticing that she was fully naked and now covered in blood from her attacker. He decided to focus on the bindings, but as his eyes drifted over her face he found himself locked onto her eyes, her emerald green eyes.
“Cassidy?”
