“The exit to the sewers is only down the corridor a way, but it’s guarded, and the trapdoor makes a lot of noise when its opened.” I finished my recap of our situation to Cloridan.

“I see. Are you thinking we should try to escape, or should we infiltrate to learn more about whats going on?” He stretched himself out as he talked, working out the kinks from being tied up.

“It would be a waste to just run away,” I said considering. “Something you should know though, if it comes to fighting, I’ve never actually… killed another person.”

Cloridan looked at me. “Really? I’m surprised, you give off an air of someone competent and ruthless enough to have made that call before.”

“I’ve seen people die,” I said, “And, giving off that impression makes it less likely that I’ll have to again. I think.”

“Thats probably true. Well, I suppose I should tell you I haven’t killed anyone either,” he said. He laughed at my look of surprise. “Why so shocked?”

“Well, I’ve spoken to other adventurers about this and I got the impression that it happened a lot.”

“Ah, well, you’re forgetting that I’m not an adventurer.” Cloridan told me. “Adventurers spend a lot of time in free dungeons or on the frontier - places outside of the Kings Law.”

“Um…”

“The Crypt is held by the Duvost family in the Kings name, so the Law applies there.” he explained. “Kill a man in the Crypt and its the same as if you did it on the town streets.”

“Oh, right. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen though. Some have already died,” I said, thinking about the village.

“All illegal deaths, and assuming this whole affair gets resolved, we can be prosecuted for any crimes we commit. So. Whats the plan?” Cloridan asked. “It won’t belong before someone comes along, if only to strip my armour off me.”

“Right. About that…” I gestured for Cloridan to get out of the cell, and then cast [Phantasmal Entity]. It didn’t work, but I got some feedback as to why, so I quickly followed up with [Phantasmal Object].

“Huh, so a corpse is an object, so I need to use the other spell,” I said absently. An illusory corpse of Cloridan, naked and apparently strangled to death, now lay on the floor of the cell.

“Um,” said Cloridan, “For future reference… I’m a lot bigger than that.”

“What?” I asked, not understanding. Then I did. “What.”

“Its fine, you weren’t to know,” he said reassuringly. “Obviously now’s not the time, but if you’d like, we could schedule a modelling session…”

“Cloridan, shut up.” I groaned.

“Or if you’d rather, I can probably arrange for some testimonials…”

[Greater Invisibility]

“OK, I can’t hear you now,” I said, “But I can still make out an outline.” I went over and pulled the piton out of the door. “You take the lead with sneaking, I’ll follow you. You’ve got those hand gestures. If you need to talk to me, get us somewhere we can’t be overheard and make this gesture.” I made a ’T’ with my hands.

Cloridan pointed at the corpse in the open cell and turned his palms face up. A question.

“Oh, when someone comes to strip you, they’ll find that you’ve been killed for your armour and/or to silence you. They’ll be looking for a thief - and this place is full of thieves. Lets take a seat, and wait.”

I cast [Greater Invisibility] on myself again, and we settled in.

It really wasn’t long before someone showed up, but it felt like forever. I was dying for some conversation - even Cloridan talking about his size - by the time someone came in the door. He took one look at the corpse, and went running out of the room.

He left the door open, so I looked over at Cloridan to see if he wanted to use the opportunity. He did. We slipped outside and went exploring.

The thief that had opened the door went right, so we went left. We passed one door, which Cloridan listened to, then the corridor took a turn and opened into the sewer entrance we’d come in from. As I’d thought, there were two guards sitting down on a table placed right on the trapdoor. There’d be no sneaking past them.

Cloridan took in the scene, and then turned back. The door was still open to the cell room, we could hear voices coming from inside.

“Just found him like this, haven’t touched him!”

“Where are the keys?”

“They must have taken ‘em”

Cloridan kept going. We went past another closed door, and continued up the corridor to where the boss must have come from. The corridor ended in a closed door.

Just before we got to it, Cloridan stopped and pointed at the ceiling. I looked up. The ceiling was different here. Instead of slabs of rock supported by wooden pillars, there was a wooden construct. It looked like a trapdoor, but I could only see rock between the spaces in the boards. Cloridan pointed at a lever on the wall, and then brought his hands down like he was playing a waterfall in a school play.

A deadfall! I realised, like the one that got us. Not a trap this time, but something they could deliberately trigger to cut off one part of the complex. I clapped Cloridan on the shoulder and we moved up to the door.

This was also closed, but it looked like it opened inwards, so there was something I could try. I clapped Cloridan on the shoulder again and cast [Static Image]

Nothing changed, as I had just cast an illusion of the door overlapping itself. Taking quick look back to make sure there was no one to see, I unlatched the door and pulled it towards us.

Cloridan was confused when the door opened to reveal another door, but I pushed him through into the room beyond. This was an armoury, but the more immediate concern was the guard.

He was stationed on the other side of the room, near some stairs, and he was looking puzzledly in our direction. It was the noise, I realised. The argument coming from down the hall was now audible to him.

Oops. I closed the door as quietly as I could, and the noise ceased. I’d attracted the guards attention though, and he wandered over with that puzzled look on his face.

Fortunately the armoury was quite open, and there was room for Cloridan and I to get out the way. I canceled [Static Image] as the guard slowly moved over. We leaned back against locked racks of weapons as the guard stood in front of the door, his head cocked.

He stood there long enough that the door eventually opened, revealing the boss.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“I uh, heard a noise?” he replied.

“Was it me shouting? Then get back to your post.”

He scuttled back to do as she said, and the two thieves headed upstairs, the boss reeling off names and what it was she wanted them to do. It sounded like she was going to gather a bunch of people in the meeting room. We tried to follow them out, but her assistant was a bit too zealous in quickly closing the door. And locking it from the sound of it. I backed down the stairs to get out of Cloridan’s way. He looked at the guard and then pointed at the door.

I repeated my trick from before, hoping there wasn’t anyone on the other side. There was a faint click as I opened the door, but the guard resolutely ignored it. I pushed Cloridan through again, and we moved on.

This time Cloridan went as far as the door next to our old cell. He tried it, quietly, but it didn’t move, so he knelt down and started doing something to the lock. I guess they didn’t find his lock-picks.

It wasn’t long before he had the door open, and we quickly slipped inside. It was dark, so I carefully cast [Light] at a low level. Barrels were revealed all around us, and what looked like wine bottles. Cloridan made the timeout gesture.

“This looks like a wine cellar,” he said, after we’d snuck into an out of the way corner. He pointed. “And that sounds like a tavern above. That meeting room, she mentioned is probably in there.”

“You think we can sneak out here?”

“Maybe. I was thinking you might want to listen in on the meeting, but it will be crowded. A better option might be above the armoury - they should have less people there when the meeting is going on and that seems like the leaders command post. We might find evidence there."

“That does sound like the best option. Where do we hide until the meeting?”

Cloridan grinned. “Where else but the cells?”

So we waited some more. We watched as a pair of thugs came in and carried Cloridan’s corpse down to the sewers. We waited some more and a small crowd hurried along the corridor, led by the angry boss. I tapped Cloridan on the shoulder to let him know I was paying attention, and we headed back to where they’d come from.

There was still a guard on the door. Cloridan gave me the gesture for ‘stay’ and moved forward. The guards attention was on the door at the top of the stairs - he never had a chance.

Your party has defeated Gradasso Compagnon - your experience share is 22 XP

This was the first time I’d seen unarmed combat in action in this world - I hadn’t even known Cloridan had the skill. He’d grappled the man from behind and pinned him until his struggles ceased. Keeping the man from crying out or making too much noise must have taken some doing. We dragged him to the side and I placed a [Static Image] of a crate over him - it might buy us some time.

Cloridan then turned his attention to the lock, and in a minute we had it open. We just had to hope there was no one on the other side.

The next room held… leather. Lots of leather, in various cuts - it seemed like were in leather-working workshop. We could hear activity from what I guessed was the shop front, but there were stairs going up, and thats where Cloridan headed.

Through another locked door, we found ourselves in a room much more richly furnished than I’d expect for a leather-worker. It looked like a primitive version of a CEO’s office. There was a big desk for her to sit behind, and low couch for her underlings to sit in while she yelled at them or whatever.

More importantly than that, there were papers. Letters, ledgers - we started going through them, when we were interrupted.

“Nobody’s supposed to be up here while the meeting's on - Hey!” A thug standing in the door shouted in surprise to see his bosses papers going through themselves.

Oops. [Phantom World]

I’d hoped that this spell would incapacitate the man more thoroughly than [Improved Blind], but it didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Taken by surprise, I went with the first illusion that came to my head - that he was falling through the sky. It had the advantage of being easy to do, just wind, blue sky and the sensation of falling. It certainly terrified him, but I’d forgotten about the screaming.

I should have remembered about the screaming. The other problem was that he overbalanced as he flailed around and took a tumble. It turns out that when you take a hit that isn’t accounted for in the illusion, it breaks.

Shit. So all I’d managed to do was knock him over and attract everyone’s attention. I cast [Phantasmal Entity].

“Something I can do for you, lad?” Archambault sneered, standing between us and the thug. I started grabbing papers and stuffing them under my tunic. If they were covered, the invisibility spell would make them disappear. I was relived to see Cloridan following my lead.

“You’re the illusionist - no, you’re the other illusionist!” the thug yelled from the floor, proving he wasn’t so dumb. “And this is one of your illusions!”

“Think so?” Archambault said. He reached down and brought the guy to his feet. Amusingly, he was so shocked by Archambault’s touch that he let him.

“What? You’re real? You can’t be?”

“I’m as real as anyone,” Archambault declared. We weren’t going to wait around for this discussion though. Cloridan had found an exit. He unlatched the barred shutters and jumped through.

“It seems that I must depart. Do give my regards to your boss,” Archambault said, fading out as I cut the spell. I was already out the window.

[Jump] skill don’t fail me now! Really though, it was an easy jump. I rushed after Cloridan. We had escaped.