AnAdventurousIntroductionToLeilm part 15
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After the battle with Mazidi, Afalar heads off to scout the tunnel heading away from the keep. Sjer goes down to collect the other boxes, Mazidi's sword and dagger with sheaths for both, a chain shirt. a pouch with coins, a silver ring with a pattern of the shadow water circle and some writing on the inner surface, and a small thin gold necklace, good boots and a cloak. The boots and cloak are given to the Torazi family. She also has another pouch with coffee in it which Sjer takes.
Meanwhile Afalar continues down the tunnel. The tunnel narrows and gets tighter in some places and looser in others. The ceiling looks recently lowered in places, probably from the quake. Eventually Afalar's candle goes out in the tightest spot. He crawls all the way back out backwards, and gets the flint from us. Sjer has mixed up some of the powder from the box with the spoon in it and tasted it. It feels like a healing powder of some kind, but Sjer is unsure of the side effects.
Afalar eventually reaches the end of the tunnel. It appears blocked by smooth stone. He finds a secret latch to open. He came back to report that there was a way out and we organized ourselves and headed out with Afalar in the lead, the woman and children next and then Zali'haro and Sjer last. Zali had just woken up due to the potion, but was still in dire straights. Only Zali and Sjer had problems negotiating the tunnel.
At the end Afalar moves the door open with a loud crash and exits the tunnel. The kids and woman move out as well and finally Zali and Sjer emerge from the subterranean prison. We find ourselves in a room much like our original prison. There is a hole in the ceiling which we manage to get through after much effort on the part of Sjer. Then we are in a room directly below the stable. There are ten horses in the stable. Six of them are Sru'haro mounts. To access the stable we need to climb up a very crumbly staircase. In the course of scouting and heading up we cause some of the stair to collapse. The noise must have attracted some attention finally as one man comes to investigate. Afalar successfully hides and outwaits the man, who moves away. Unfortunately the staircase collapsed once more, definitely alerting the guards to our presence and further injuring Afalar.
Sjer has administered another dose of the healing potion to Zali and Afalar. When Zali's kicked in, it had the unfortunate side effect of making him extremely drunk. Afalar headed to the top and Sjer helped Zali up the stairs. In the stable, Afalar had taken up position by the door and motioned to Sjer that there were two men coming. Sjer put Zali'haro onto his horse with Mazidi's sabre in his hand, then headed down to get the children and woman. While he was occupied with that task, the men reached the stable and conferred. Afalar was hidden, waiting just inside for the opportunity to strike as the men walked through. Zali chose that moment to charge the stable door hoping to bust through any opposition and create a diversion. The two men did dive out of the way of the charging horse but then ducked inside. Zali then turned his horse and came charging back. Meanwhile Afalar made a surprise attack on one of the men, but to no avail. There following a strange battle, with one man on horse and three on foot. Afalar and Zali managed to hold their attention long enough for Sjer to get everyone on horse and out the back way, and then join in the battle. Zali, drunken still on the healing potion, was swinging away wildly. His horse was holding up heroically, keeping Zali in the saddle, biting and kicking the opponents and even taking a blow or two. At this point Afalar was convinced to lie down by an axe blow to the head. Just at that moment, Sjer's head swam as he made image contact again with the four legged beast. He saw the current battle unfolding, but from the vantage of a dog rapidly approaching the fight. The beast seemed to be asking which person to attack, Sjer suggested the man with the axe. The white dog seemed to appear out of nowhere and savagely bit the large man and yanked his feet out from under him, landing him flat on his back. Unfortunately he got right back up and it took another 18 seconds to get him permanently down. At this point Afalar's healing potion kicked in. He arose drunk and angry, which is bad in a father, but pretty good in a situation like this. The four of us, Afalar, Zali, Sjer, and the white dog, closed in on the last man who was wielding a large two-handed scimitar. During the effort Afalar was downed by a severe looking slash to the chest. The rest of us had no choice by to keep fighting. Finally with one last kick to the back of the knee and a nip to the arm the man toppled. Sjer immediately jumped over the hapless fellow to tend to Afalar's wounds, but the seemed to severe. Sjer tried everything, but the blood would not stop seeping through his clothes. Just when Sjer was feeling defeated and resigning himself to trying to explain things to Afalar's father, the white dog came over and nuzzled a part of the injury that had previously escaped detection. Sjer quickly applied the appropriate pressures and the bleeding stopped, but it was obvious that Afalar was extremely close to death. Sjer looked around and realized how bad things were. Zali was still drunk and wounded, Afalar lay on the brink of extinction, and there were 5 horses and a dog looking at him expectantly. "If anyone else comes to investigate, we're doomed," he thought.
[next: TheSpoilsOfTheShadowedShell]