LXXXIII. The Missing

Adam and Zzyggy were both hit by falling blocks. They shook off most of the damage. "It’ll take more than rocks to get through your hard head!" teased Zzyggy.

The adventurers looked to their right and left. The corridor extended in either direction. Torches provided dim light.

To their right, the adventurers could see a wooden door in the corridor wall on the right side, about twenty-five feet from the tunnel entrance. Adam moved quietly to the door, listened, heard nothing, then tried to open the door. It was locked, but yielded on the barbarian’s third attempt to force it.

The door opened into a small cell, about ten by ten feet, that appeared to br some kind of sleeping quarters. Nothing of value was in the cell, only a rough sleeping pallet and an empty wooden chest.

Several more doors were farther down the corridor. Adam broke down the next door, and found another empty quarters. The next room was also empty, except for one item: a small metal object that looked like some kind of tentacle. Adam picked it up and took it, then left the cell and returned to the corridor.

Suddenly, the sound of running feet were heard, The adventurers turned around and saw four angry figures coming at them!

Adam quickly drank a potion of haste, then positioned himself in the bend of the corridor, positioning himself for the enemy charge. Graves took his place next to the barbarian. His shot went wide.

Before the other adventurers could act, two of the onrushing foes charged into Adam and Graves. The warriors both hit their targets with their swords. The other two enemies ran up behind them.

Roaring his warcry, Adam raged! He swung with full power at the second warrior. A second, hasted blow felled the warrior, and Adam cleaved into the remaining warrior. A huge, bloody gash scored the warrior’s chest. Graves and Fiora tried to bring down the bleeding warrior, but failed to connect.

The warrior, undaunted, swung at Adam again, and did critical damage to the barbarian! Meanwhile, the other two enemies backed up the warrior. The second advanced on Adam and uttered mystical syllables. Adam suddenly felt sleepy, but shook off the assault, as did Fiora. Graves’ elvish blood made him immune to magical sleep!

"Enough toying!!" roared Adam. He swung at the remaining warrior and dropped him in bloody ruin. Then he cleaved into the first adept, killed him, and followed up with another mighty blow that killed the second adept. Exhausted, he paused to quaff healing potions, while the others searched the bodies, finding two cure light wounds potions as well as low-grade weapons and armor.

Before the party could do anything else, another door, on the left of the corridor around the bend, opened. Three more guards appeared!

The warriors all rushed at Adam. Two of them hit, slashing the barbarian. Fiora stepped up behind Adam and swung at the first of the warriors, wounding him severely. Adam’s sword finished the guard off, then cleaved into the second guard. A heavy blow from Troy’s greatsword slew the second guard.

The third guard saw his fellow guards fall and turned to flee!

While Fiora, Zzyggy and Troy went on the defensive, Adam pursued the fleeing guard and landed a brutal slash. Now the guard forgot all thought of combat, and desperately tried to escape from Adam’s wrath. Unsuccessfully. The barbarian swung again, and brought down the hapless guard.

Meanwhile, Fiora looked into the open door from which the dead guards had emerged. It appeared to lead to some kind of prison!

The adventurers unlocked the shackles binding the prisoners within their cells, then began to attend to them. All of the prisoners were emaciated and barely alive. Most were suffering from diseases. Of these, some had taken on a distinctly bluish tint in the abdominal area.

Questioning revealed that the prisoners came from many other locations besides Longspear, which seemed to represent an expansion of the area targeted for kidnappings. The prisoners included Senna and Garn, from Longspear, and also a woman named Thecla, who was a cook from the same town whose disappearance had apparently gone unnoticed. Four prisoners were from the town of Westkeep, in the midst of the Hool Marshes on the south bank of the Javan River: Wilf, a beggar; Willis, a gambler; Binnie, a petty thief; and Zane, a bartender. All were humans. Two prisoners came from the area of The Tors, a small spur of hills to the west of the Hool Marshes: Alca, a woodsman from the town of Melkot, who was suffering from some kind of blindness; and Plong, a male goblin. Two lizardmen, Sskaa and Fftiik, had been taken in the Hool Marshes. The last prisoner was a young female elf, apparently a ranger, who was suffering from an unknown illness that left her totally unresponsive to those around her.

All of the prisoners who could speak told similar stories. Most lived or worked in low-class or dangerous areas. All had been going about their business late at night or early in the morning. None remembered how they had arrived in this place. They also had grim tales to report. "From time to time," related Willis, "the guards would let someone in who would pick a prisoner out. The guards would drag the bloke from his cell and out of the prison, never to return."

"Yeah, and we’d hear screaming coming from somewhere in the area," added Garn. "I thinks that’s what happened to poor ol’ Ezzard. I can still hear them cultists, or whatever they are. "Little puddings’ve gotta eat, y’know! This’ll only hurt . . . oh, a whole lot!" they laughed.  I wanna get ‘em!" he snarled, clearly eager for revenge.

"Are there any other captives here?" asked Fiora. The prisoners confirmed that there was another prison, in the area Adam had located.

Garn, Willis, and Plong were able to fightm and volunteered to join the party. "We could go along with you, while some of you take these ‘ere sick ones out of this place."

"I like that plan!" said Adam, and the others agreed. The adventures gave the three fit prisoners some of the equipment they’d recovered from the dead guards--crowbars, hammers, picks, swords, and chain shirts. They decided to spring the captives in the other prison first, before evacuating. Troy, Zzyggy and Adam went to get the other captives. Fiora and Graves tended to the prisoners that had already been freed.

Adam entered the second corridor and quietly approached the door to the prison door, followed by Troy and Zzyggy. He put his ear to the door. There was movement audible.

Signaling to the others to be ready, the barbarian quaffed a healing potion to recover some of his expended vigor.

The prison door swung open and three guards emerged.

Troy swung first. One hit, one dead guard! Adam slashed a second guard, wounding him severely. The third guard slashed back at Adam, doing similar damage to the barbarian.

With Troy providing flanking coverage, Adam swung again, and dropped the second guard, then cleaved into the third guard. The surviving guard tried to grapple Adam, but failed to get a hold on the barbarian. His failed attempt left him open to attack from Troy, who promptly slew him.

One of the dead guards had a key ring. Adam grabbed it, then scouted the second prison. To the left, around the corner from the guard room, he found three more prison cells holding eight more prisoners.

The captives were promptly liberated, and proved even more diverse than the first group. The first cell held a half-elf drifter from Westkeep, named Tovar; an old, blind dwarf beggar from the Little Hills, Bolin; and a man who was unable to speak but who met the description of Alois, the assistant blacksmith from Longspear. The second cell held Festus, the town drunk from Longspear, inebriated no more; a stable boy from Westkeep, named Hedric; and Hamlost, an alcoholic Halfling rogue from the town of Hokar, to the south of the Hool Marshes in the realm of the Sea Princes.

In the third cell, the party made a disturbing discovery: two half-orcs. One, a petty thief by looks, lay stretched out rigidly and apparently was recently deceased. The other, delirious with fever, wore garb unfamiliar to Adam and Troy. Zzyggy, however, recognized it. "Scarlet Brotherhood!" he hissed. "These two are from Monmurg, by the looks of it. Better keep an eye on the live one, especially if he recovers."

Quickly, the adventurers tended to the newly-freed captives.  Tovar and Hamlost volunteered to fight along with Adam and his companions; like Garn, they too craved vengeance. The adventurers, with the captives, quietly but expeditiously rejoined the others. After a short discussion, they agreed to a plan of action. Fiora and Graves, assisted by Hedric and Festus, would evacuate the sick and wounded back to the surface. Adam, Troy and Zzyggy, together with Garn, Tovar, Willis, Plong the goblin, and Hamlost, would find and destroy the cultists who were responsible for the kidnappings and murders.

"Yeah! That’ll hurt . . . oh, a whole lot!" gloated Garn.