Third day First Month Four Thousand and Six Hundred and forty-five rings of the Great White Tree.

Nghapteiniaid Lancia Ap Brwydr Confederation Army.

After a couple of days in the city they had formulated a plan to break into the dungeon and free the Prince. They were going over their final preparations for their plan involved going into the labyrinth like tunnels under the city.

Rad had just come back from visiting his shady friend. A hafling known as Maurice who was able to secure them a number of items for their expedition that would have been very difficult to find anywhere else.

"I still don't know why the priestess couldn't make us holy water."

Rad complained as pulled out a couple flasks of holy water out of the large bag he was carrying. Pikku followed him and placed an even larger bag on the table.

"Morwyn told you, she would have needed silver shavings and a couple hours preparation just to make one flask."

Lancia replied in defence of Morwyn. As part of the plan Llygaid had convinced the group that she should be able to get Morwyn into the palace. Rad’s shady contact was able to supply union documentation that would assist in the deception.

Early that morning Morwyn dressed up as a palace maid and went with Llygaid to the palace they would open the secret entrance which lay deep under the palace.

As part of their preparations Grandfather had insisted that they should put together what he called a Dungeoneer’s pack. He didn't mean dungeon like the one that held the Prince. He explained to Lancia that dungeons were what adventurers called places where monsters dwell and all good adventurers carried a dungeoneer's pack.

Grandfather claimed that once in his youth he had been an adventurer. They already suspected that the tunnels under the city had undead roaming around.

So in their backpacks they now carried a flask of holy water. A flask of acid, a healing potion, as well as a fully stocked medical kit.

The party had a couple picks and shovels just in case they ran into a cave in. As well as a few lanterns and torches to light the way.

Once they had finished their preparations. They headed to the cemetery, Ysgolhaig with the help of a professor from the university had identified an entrance to the tunnels under the city.

Normally elves' bodies were incorporated back into one of the great white trees in an elaborate elven ceremony. However this city had a large population of non elves who were buried in the cemetery.

Hidden away at the back of the cemetery. Lay the ruins of a large ancient temple. At the temple entrance they met another party of elves. These were the elves that Ysgolhaig arranged to join them from the university.

Led by a crazy professor who was an expert on the history of the city. He had in his possession a collection of maps that they would be using to navigate their way through the maze like tunnels that lay under the city.

The crazy professor had also brought with him a number of his students. They included the childhood friend of Ysgolhaig who had the end of his arm amputated in a battle against the union.

Ysgolhaig convinced them that they could disguise the rescue attempt as an archaeological expedition from the university. Ysgolhaig claimed the professor had been planning this expedition for years. The union authorities were too busy at the walls dealing with the confederate army that still had the city under siege to pay much attention to some academics conducting an archaeological expedition under the city.

The temple was of a design that Lancia had never seen before from a long dead civilization. A large sun symbol sat above the entrance. The party walked through the doors. Inside was a large room which would have once been packed with the worshippers of some ancient dead faith. Prifathro the professor started talking

"Once in these halls both humans and elves worshipped the same gods. Some of my colleagues say that this ruin predates the great white tree at Cowden Wen Wych. Our histories tell us that the tomb king worshipped death. However, in my studies I have discovered that before the war with our ancestors they worshiped life."

The professor of the by looked like he was going to say more but he stopped his eyes locked on Grandfather.

"I remember you."

The professor blurted out

"You fought for the king in the civil war".

Lancia knew that the old elf who pretended to be his Grandfather had fought in previous wars. Now the Professor claimed to remember Grandfather from the civil war that had been fought centuries before Lancia had been born.

"You also fought against the tomb king."

Ysgolhaig did warn everyone that the professor was a bit eccentric. The war with the tomb king had ended almost a thousand years ago even for long lived elves it was still ancient history.

Lancia waited for Grandfather or the professor to say more but then a stranger appeared at the other end of the temple.

"It looks like your guide has appeared."

The hunter Dyn directed that comment to Rad. Rad’s benefactor Maurice said he could provide a guide.

"Hey are you the guide that Maurice sent."

Rad asked the stranger.

The stranger walked closer to the group. It was cloaked from head to toe in a large dirty cloak. It was clear by it's uneven stride that the stranger was not human or elf but a creature of another type. It had a large black beak and it's face was covered in black feathers.

The creature answered Rad.

"Maurice sent."

The voice that the creature answered in was the same as Rads. As it drew closer it was clear the creature looked like a large black raven. However it had arms instead of wings. The Professor forgot his conversation with Grandfather and walked over to the creature. He examined the creature. Then he spoke.

"Let's see, you're not an Aarakocra because they have wings. You just mimicked the halfling's speech but I haven't heard you speak in your own tongue. I think this might be a Kenku. I've never seen one. I heard a rumour that there was Kenku in the city."

Back in the capital of Cowden Wen Wych, Lancia had read in an ancient book in the library about the reclusive creatures called Kenku. According to the manuscript the Kenku were summoned to this world by a powerful wizard to assist him in his work.

There was a falling out between the wizard and his servants. The wizard accused the Kenku of trying to steal his prize creation and in a fit of rage he cursed them.

The curse affected the Kenku in three ways. First the beloved wings of the Kenku withered and fell off. Second because of their ingenuity and skill had sparked them to plot against their master the spark of creativity was torn from their soul. Finally to ensure the Kenku never shared their secrets the curse took away their voices. So now all they could do was mimic other people's voices and copy other people's work.

The Kenku motioned for them to follow it. Grandfather spoke to the Kenku.

"Before we follow you do you have a name?"

He asked. The Kenku answered by pointing at one of the black feathers on his arm.

"Feather?"

Asked Grandfather but the Kenku shook it's head and pointed again at the feather. The Professor piped up and shouted.

"Black"

The Kenku nodded it's head. Then it pointed to his beak.

"Your name is Black Beak."

Shouted the professor. The Kenku responded mimicking the professor's voice.

"Name is Black Beak."

Lancia was starting to get frustrated with the delay and he spoke.

"Can we stop playing guessing games and get a move on we need to get to Morwyn."

"Who is Morwyn?"

Asked one of the elves from the university that was not aware of the bigger plan. Lancia was about to respond. But luckily Ysgolhaig answered for him.

"We have an advanced party already ahead of us and we are seeking to meet up with them."

There was then an awkward silence. Grandfather broke the silence when he spoke.

"So Black Beak can you show us into the tunnels below."

The Kenku named Black Beak led them to a room at the back of the temple. He jumped over what looked to be an altar and then moved a stab of stone on the floor. A staircase led down into tunnels below.

"I never knew this secret passage was here, this is fascinating"

Commented the Professor.

As they made the way into the tunnels under the temple Lancia wondered what Morwyn was up to.

Morwyn Ifanc Priestess of the blade

When Morwyn agreed to this mission she did not expect that she would find herself in the kitchen doing the dishes. True to her word Llygaid was able to get her past the guards and into the palace.

However instead of heading to the dungeon, Llygaid had led Morwyn to the palace kitchen, and then requested that she wash up the dishes from breakfast.

Another maid was assisting with the chore. Her name was Trixie and she was a beastkin. During the War of the Long Night many beastkin tribes were subjected to attacks and violence. Especially in the human kingdoms. Humans lumped the beastkin with the werefolk and attacked them on site.

This embittered a lot of the beastkin and some beastkin tribes sided with the werefolk in their war of civilised races. Only a few tribes of beastkin survived the war.

Trixie was only a bit taller then Rad she had fine mink like fine fur covering her body. She was one of Mustilus beastkin. Trixie was very talkative.

"You'll never guess what happened then. The soldiers chased me all the way to the gates of the palace. If it wasn't for Lady Llygaid I would have ended up a slave or worse. So that's how I ended up here as a maid."

Morwyn was about to lose her patience. Llygaid returned to the kitchen.

"The General has asked us to feed the prisoners. Morwyn grab some food and come with me."

Llygaid commanded. Morwyn collected some food off the cook who was preparing food for the union soldiers stationed in the palace. She then followed Llygaid as she led her out of the kitchen.

"Hey can I come too, I've never seen the Prince before."

Asked Trixie. Llygaid looked like she was going to argue with the beastkin. However she sighed and gave in without making a scene.

They were walking down a long hallway. When Trixie spoke again.

"Look at the elf with the mask. I wonder why he wears a mask."

Morwyn felt a cold shudder go up her spine. Walking towards her were two individuals that she had met before.

The elf who Trixie pointed out was wearing the uniform of a union officer he wore an ivory mask covering his face. But Morwyn knew that the face had been branded with the traitor's mark

Next to the elf was human women with dark ebony skin. Morwyn had crossed swords with the warrior women at the prison. Although they had only fought for a few seconds during the hectic midnight battle. Morwyn recognised the deadly foe.

They both seemed to pay no attention to them as they passed. Still Morwyn held her breath and she felt so naken without her swords. She waited and the seconds turned to minutes. It appeared she had not been recognised. She started to breath normally.

They began their descent down into the ground inside one of the massive roots of the great tree. A stairway led down into the earth below. Deeper and Deeper they travelled until finally they arrived at a door.

Llygaid opened the door using key. On the other side of the door the staircase continued down onto the final room which was the dungeon.

Normally the dungeon would house thieves and criminals that were waiting to be sentenced by the Prince. Now it held a Prince. In the large barred cell Morwyn could see it was occupied by two elves.

They were both chained to the wall of the cell. The chains were long enough that it allowed them some basic moment around the prison cell.

"So which one is the Prince."

Asked Trixie.

Llygaid went over to the cell and called an elf over to her. That must be the Prince. Morwyn examined the second elf he was beaten and tortured. All his fingers had been broken and his face was black with bruises.

Suddenly she realised that she knew the elf. It was the bard Brydynddoon.

Morwyn moved to the door of the cell. She called out to Brydynddoon.

"Brydynddoon, how did you end up here?"

Morwyn asked

Brydynddoon looked at Morwyn, his gaze was one of utter despair. He opened his mouth but instead of speaking he uttered a few grunts. Looking closely at his mouth Morwyn was able to see that his tongue had been cut out.

"Oh Brydynddoon what have they done to you? Come here and drink this water.'

Morwyn casted a magic spell to ease the pain that Brydynddoon was feeling. As she poured some water down his patched throat.

"We will soon have you out of that cell. Lancia and some others are travelling under the city and will be here soon."

She wondered what Lancia and the others were doing?

Ulian Radulescu escaped prisoner of the union

"Lite it up Lancia"

Rad watched as the old elf gave the command to the young elf to ignite the gunpowder and with a large flash. There was an explosion and another Grey Ooze went up in flames.

Oozes thrive in the dark, shunning areas of bright light and extreme temperatures. They flow through the damp underground, feeding on any creature or object that can be dissolved, slinking along the ground, dripping from walls and ceilings, spreading across the edges of underground pools, and squeezing through cracks. Always a threat to adventures and explorers of the underground.

Luckily the old elf had insisted that they carry additional gunpowder in case they ran into a situation like this as good kucfire made quick work of the oozes.

"I think that was the last of them."

Stated the old elf. Before he been rescued from the mine he had never seen an old elf. He assumed that all elves stayed young and youthful. But now he met an elf with a long white mane. He wondered to himself how many centuries this old elf had seen. But even the blunt hafling was reluctant to ask. He thought to himself that even the youngest of the elves here was over a century older than himself.

Rad heard something to his left. Another Grey Oozes appeared out of the dark and almost began devouring the hafling. However the elven hunter called Dyn had spotted the ooze and flung a flask of acid at the creature. The flask smashed and its contents melted the ooze.

"Let's hope that's the last of them."

Rad muttered out loud. He heard the gnome Pikku laughing next to him.

'Hey that slime almost got you."

The gnome then spoke a few more arcane words and his staff glowed a bit more brightly. The light discovered a few more of the oozes but they quickly retreated away from the light.

"Hey gnome can you come over here so can have a look at my map"

The elf who everyone called the professor demanded.

"Let's see we should be here on the map. We should head down the passage to the left."

Black Beak and the hunter Dyn lead the party as they headed down the tunnel. They had been walking for about twenty minutes before they heard the sound of claws scrambling along the rocky surface.

The first thing that Rad could see were the hundreds of red eyes staring out of the dark. The red eyes were quickly approaching.

"Form up a firing line"

Yelled the old elf, the elves formed up a firing line. Rad pulled out a flintlock pistol and pointed it at the creatures that were rushing towards his position.

Suddenly the creatures entered the light from torches and Pikku staff. It was a horde of giant rats. The rats were the size of large wolves.

"Fire"

Yelled the old elf, Rad fired his flintlock pistol and watched as the lead ball from the pistol hit one of the rats through the eye. Rad was rather pleased with the shot and began reloading.

The rats had momentarily stopped a half a dozen of the beasts lying dead on the ground. Then they continued their charge. Rad was still busy reloading his pistol when the first of the beasts arrived at the firing line.

Rad looked down the jaws of one of the rats as it opened wide it's razor sharp teeth. A glaive smashed down on the skull of the rat knocking it away from the hafling. The phoenix guard cleared away the rats closest to elves.

Rad finished reloading his pistol and fired hitting a rat in the shoulder. This shot did not kill the rat instead it further enraged the rat and it turned its attention on the hafling.

Rad looked around to see if the phenix guard would be able to kill this beast however the elf was already engaged in fighting three rats and unable to assist.

In desperation Rad threw his pistol at the rat. This only made the beast more angry. It approached with a snarl. Rad attempted to flee backwards but only fell on his arse.

Just as the monstrous rat was about to devour the defenseless hafling a black blur pounced on the back of the rat. As Rad regained his footing he was able to see that a black panther fighting the rat. The panther was able to bite into the rat's neck and rip the rat's throat out.

An arrow from Saethwr killed the last rat. As suddenly as the fight began it ended. The Panther with blood dripping from its sharp teeth turned to face Rad.

"Nice kitty."

Rad called to the panther. The panther licked its lips. In a panic Rad prepared to run. Then the panther transformed. One minute a deadly panther stood before him the next it transformed into Pikku.

Rad sighed in relief.

The gnome laughed

"You should see your face, I bet you almost shat yourself. What did you think I was a real panther or perhaps it was a creature from the astral plane. Lucky for you I can polymorph myself otherwise that rat would have got you."

Rad now owed Pikku his life. He watched as the gnome casually walked over to his staff and backpack. Rad looked around and saw that there were no more rats. Well no more living rats. There were dead rat bodies all over the tunnel.

"Let's move on before more of these foul creatures appear."

Suggested the old elf. Pikku reapplied the spell that allowed light to shine out of his staff. The Kenku again led the way and they continued down a tunnel. Everyone remained vigilant peering out into the dark to see what new threats would emerge from the dark.

They had been moving through the dark for a couple hours until they arrived at a large cavern. The professor paused and looked at the walls.

"Look at these engravings."

The wall was covered in engravings. Rad could not read the writing but that was expected because he only knew how to read the common language known to men.

The Professor was engrossed in reading what was written on the wall.

"I believe that this was written before the war with the tomb king."

The professor said excitedly. The old elf pulled aside the professor and asked.

"Can interrupt you for a second and ask are we close to our distinction."

The professor turned to the old elf and replied.

"Yes it should be just up that tunnel over there. He pointed to another tunnel that branched off from the cavern.

The elves from the university continued to examine the carved writing. One elf was writing on a manuscript making a copy of what was written on the wall.

The old elf seemed to pause to weigh up the risks. Then he barked off some orders.

"Dyn, Ysgolhaig stay here and guard the professor and his students. The rest of you with me."

Rad followed the old elf as they headed down the tunnel. It wasn't long till they arrived at a tunnel where it appeared a large stalactite flowing down from the ceiling blocking the tunnel.

As they got closer to the enormous stalactite Rad realised that it wasn't made of stone. It was the root of the great white tree that lay in the centre of the city.

There was a staircase carved into the root that led up to a door near the ceiling of the tunnel. Lancia was first to the door and he knocked on it. Llygaid opened the door and allowed the party into the dungeon.

Rad was surprised that there was a beastkin in the room. The beastkin looked equally confused.

"Llygaid why are you letting these ruffians into the palace."

The beastkin shouted and as she yelled this she was looking right at Rad.

"They are here to help rescue the Prince."

Llygaid answered the beastkin.

"Rad I think you will need to open the cellndoor and unlock the manacles chaining them to the wall."

Llygaid requested. Rad moved over to the door of the cell that held the prisoner's. It was a simple lock and Rad had no problem picking it.

Saethwr went over to one of the elves and bowed deeply.

"My Prince, we have come to rescue you."

The Prince looked at Saethwr and replied.

"It's Saethwr isn't it, you won the archery tournament at last year's summer solstice."

Saethwwr bowed even lower.

"I am at your service my Prince."

Rad was busy unlocking the chains around the prince's wrist and connected to the wall. Again this was pretty easy to pick and once he had unlocked the manacles, Sarthwr assisted the Prince to the tunnels below and his freedom.

Meanwhile Morwyn and Lancia were assisting the second elf in the cell. Rad moved over and went to work on the locks. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the beastkin was keeping a close look on what he was doing.

Finally he was able to open the manacles and free the bruised and tortured elf. Lancia and Morwyn helped the elf out of the cell and they walked towards the exit of dungeon.

Rad was at the stairwell leading to the tunnels below the city when the door into the dungeon opened and some union soldiers busted in.

Morwyn was the first to react to the enemy leaving Lancia to carry the injured elf. She ran to engage the elves. She didn't even have any weapons with which to fight them.

Lancia paused for a second and dug into his backpack.

"Morwyn here are your swords."

He called as he tossed her swords into the air. The sword maiden caught her blades and engaged the union soldier walking down the stairway. The soldier was an elf wearing a mask.

Rad drew out his flintlock pistol and was about to fire. However the old elf tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hold on we don't want to alert the whole palace."

Next to Morwyn the phoenix guard with his glaive was also engaged in fighting the union soldiers. Saethwr left the Prince in the care of Llygaid and the beastkin and was firing his now. Loosing arrows at the union soldiers.