"But what friends are these? And what magic do you have?"
"Try to breach the sally port before the charge," says Irabeth, "They may not be so alert. We can't give you much time, so be quick. And may the Inheritor bless you."
Sulliver leads them off on their horses, away from the road and looping around the site of the fort. The drizzly mist hides their approach. They reach what appears to be a natural pile of boulders. Sulliver pauses.
"It's been a while," he whispers, "Not sure exactly..." He scratches around the short tussocks of grass. "Ah, here it is!" A handle projects from the earth. Sulliver yanks it and a round metal hatch, cunningly painted and countoured so as to appear like rock, swings open. A round hole carved into the bedrock, metal rungs on one side, leads down.
Sulliver hesitates, looking apologetic. "Er, I think there are some traps down there."
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"I don't have much, a few minor magics. I just learned how to cast invisibility. That's my best spell.
"My friends are an odd grab-bag. Three're good warriors. One's a mage of some power. I stayed alive in Kenabres by sticking with them. I don't think they'll leave me here if they know I've been captured."
One of the others comes over. "Captain, I overheard them up there," he says in an urgent whisper, "There's an army attacking to fort!"
At the bottom there is a small chamber with a stone door. The door has no apparent handle or other way of opening it, but on it carved letters writte in Common: 'Bless us in our battles, hold us steadfast in our terrors'.
Mulluq's gut reaction is to touch his holy symbol in agreement with the prayer, but he puts no deeper meaning into it.
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Sol smiles in the darkness. "Jod must have gotten back to them. "
"Captain, I have a few tricks. I could take the appearance of one of them. I might be able to tell a convincing lie or two. I might be able to scare one or convulse one with laughter. That's all. Unless we can lure them down here one by one, I won't be of any more use than the next man."
"So what can we do to help ourselves?"
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"I can try. If the walls are rough, I can probably manage, but lifting the trap door could be tough."
Shuffling his feet in the dark, Sol follows Kamilo to the wall under the trap door. He stretches a little, then feels for, and digs his fingers into, crevices in the rock face and begins to pull himself up.
The prayer is relatively well known. However, in Taldan the standard rendition is 'Bless us in our battles, hold us steadfast in our fears'.
The young ranger will turn to face the door before saying, "Maybe a more devout person than myself should say it." He looks expectantly at Mulluq, then Kira.
Jod's senses do him - and the group - proud. He notices the flagstone that would act as a trigger for some sort of trap, and then the tripwire beneath the concealed chute in the ceiling further along. Finally they reach the end of tunnel to find it blocked by a steel door. The door has a handle on it but Jod notices that it seems to have little wear, while a small masonry flag in the wall next to it seems slightly discoloured.
"You did it!" Kamilo listens. "There doesn't seem to be anyone up there. Let's get out of here while we can!"
Assisting one another, the soldiers manage to clamber out of the pit. They and Sol find themselves in an abandoned guardroom. They can hear shouts in the distance but nothing nearby.
"There's an armoury near here, perhaps we can puck up some weapons." They find the room a short distance down a corridor. Although the racks have been kicked over and smashed, it takes a lot of effort to systematically destroy steel weapons. The group are able to arm themselves with longswords and shields.
"There's a back door out of here. Do you think we should go that way or see if we can take them unawares from the rear?" asks Kamilo.
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"I am not much of a fighter, and these, " Sol lifts a longsword, "certainly aren't my kind of weapons. If it was just me, I'd make a run for it."
He straightens up and adjusts his cloak so that the brooch shows plainly at his shoulder. "But the army and my friends are out there, fighting to free us. And there's enough of us that we might make a difference. Let's secure this building, then see how it looks outside before deciding further."
”I appreciate the gesture. And I won’t turn down the offer - if I’m correct, what lies beyond you will know exactly how to handle. But remember - these traps probably don’t care who you are. If they trip, they trip. If I’m wrong and you set it off, it’s my error, not a failing of yours.”
With a clunk the door swings open. Beyond is... silence.
Moving back into the lead, Jod uses his darkvision and search forward.
Kira also begins to breath again as the door swings open to no obvious foe. "This place was certainly designed to be defended. Keep up the good work Sol."
"We're under bunker two, more or less - the middle one," say Kamilo.
Jod nods and moves forward, still watching for traps and triggers. He draws and readies his bow in case someone arrives before the gate has been lifted. He listens for voices or footfalls while Kira searches.