For all that they were made of bone, the crew of the Black Wraith were no less quiet than we were as we quickly moved along the secret passage. The infrequent flame of everburning candles along the wall gave just enough light for someone with low-light vision to see their way clearly. Clearly, it was designed by elves, for elves. Fortunately, with our group, it could have been pitch black darkness, and we would have been fine. Every one of our attack party had darkvision, just as part of our natural forms. Well, unnatural, in the case of the undead.

Because of this, we made good time, covering ground quickly. The tunnel sloped downwards, and had a noticeable curve to the left. By my reckoning, we were not going straight to the palace. Did the tunnel sweep under the entire town?

“Like as not,” Captain Jack said, when I voiced my suspicions aloud. “If I were making an escape tunnel, to be used when the castle were fallin’? I’d want more’n one exit, that’d be certain. Even if I didn’t want to risk a second entrance being found, I wouldn’t make my tunnel a straight line, unless I had no other choice.”

“Why not, Captain?”

“Because, lass, if’n your tunnel be a straight line, then a smart feller who finds the place you went in could get a map, and send troops to figure out where you would be coming back up. And if an army has the city besieged, then they might be able to get troops there faster than you can get there. Too risky, yeah?”

“Ah, I see what you mean. Even with magic shrouding the exit, if they know where to look, they can have people there. If scrying spells don’t work, then eyes may well succeed. And then you’re in the middle of a chase, rather than an escape.”

“Right, lassie. Now, if I be honest, the only reason to have an actual tunnel instead of, say, some kind of platform that will teleport those who step onto it to a matching platform, miles away, perhaps even in a friendly city, is that teleporting magic is easier to disrupt than walking on y’er own two feet. An’, if’n we’re being honest, I’d be sore worried about some turncoat on the other end selling out the location. Then, you’d have an army just popping up inside your castle, unannounced. Any alarms would be too late.”

“Speaking of alarms?”

The undead captain shook his head. “Me and mine don’t have the skills for that kind of work. We’re more the smash and grab type, yeah? If one of yours does, though?”

I nodded. “You heard him, Siora. You’re our trapfinder. We don’t want to set off any nasty surprises and have the entire palace guard waiting on us.”

“On it,” the beguiler said, and slipped to the front of the pack. “I wouldn’t expect too much in the way of traps, though, not until we get closer to the palace. Since this is supposed to be an escape tunnel, most of it would be free and clear, so that the royals and whatever attendants they had with them could move as quickly as possible. They wouldn’t risk the royal family’s escape getting cut off by a panicking servant not knowing where to step.”

Her logic was sound, but I was pleased to see that she did not let it go to her head. Under her guidance, our pace slowed slightly as she took the time to pause, and check whenever we approached a bend or corner that was sharper than the rest. So far, we had found nothing, as expected. But that didn’t mean that we were going to keep being that lucky. There had to be some defenses in place.

I had lost track of how long we had been moving when Siora’s hand went up, calling us to a halt. “There’s a sharp turn, here. Careful, now.”

Slowly, she moved forward, and we followed after her. In the silence, we could hear the sounds of the city above, but muffled. It sounded like the party was still in full swing. People must not have noticed the city getting surrounded, yet.

Siora’s Search check: 1d20+41 = 61 (Success)

Siora’s Disable Device check: 1d20+39 = 47 (Success)

The sharp turn actually turned out to be a dog-leg, the quick back and forth cutting off the dim light from the candles. Just as the dimness became too great for even low-light vision to see through, Siora bent down, and got to work with her thieves’ tools. “There. Pressure plate, looked to be set up to drop the ceiling on us. There is also a manual release, here. I guess the idea was that, if the royals were being pursued close enough, they could trigger the trap manually, and seal the way behind them.”

I nodded slowly. “Good work, Siora. And keep it up, will you? I’m too pretty to get smashed by ceilings.”

That got a round of chuckles, as I meant it to, and we continued on, through the area with the ceiling rigged to collapse. At the other end was a wooden door. I could hear the sounds of the city more clearly now. Definitely noisy up there.

Siora found the catch that unlocked the door, and slowly opened it. Before us, we saw what was clearly part of a well, given the way that sunlight entered from the hole in the ceiling above. Water collected in a cistern, below, flowing in from an underwater tributary of the river we had landed the ship in. The space itself was about twenty feet wide, and twice that in height, with the well offset to our right. I did not know how deep the cistern’s depth was, but it could easily have been another twenty feet deep.

We were actually situated upon a landing halfway up the space. Stairs rose to the right, leading to another landing, where iron rungs driven into the stone walls allowed someone to climb up, and presumably out the top of the well, into the city. To the left, the stairs continued downward, until you got to another landing, at the water’s edge. There did not appear to be any door on that landing, at leas as far as I could see from here.

That said, if, as I suspected, the door was concealed in some way, as, no doubt, the one Siora just opened was, then the design showed an elegant simplicity to it. To someone coming down the well, for whatever reason, it would look like a cistern, designed to hold a great deal of water for use in times of drought, or when the city was besieged. You would not suspect that the well harbored a secret passage, unless you knew of it.

Having an entrance in the city, one that didn’t require royal blood to access, was also a bonus, as it could be used by servants of the royal family, when they wanted to sneak a spy in or out of the palace. It was likely that the entrance we used was the only one sealed in that way, since it allowed someone to bypass all of the capitol’s defenses. At least the well was inside the city, and in plain view, which made moving a strike force into place difficult.

However, it also served another purpose, that I could see. The well access, concealed by secret doors and guarded by traps? If an enemy came upon it while chasing fleeing royalty, they might assume that they went up, into the city, and waste valuable time checking the city for their quarry, while the royals made good their escape. At the very least, it offered options for the fleeing party to split up, if need be.

The screams from above were getting annoying. We needed to keep moving, before they really started getting on my nerves. Wait, screams? I looked up, towards the well, as I listened. There was indeed screaming, coming from above. Shouts of panic, and the feral roars of the Corrupted.

I took a sharp breath, and said, low enough to not risk being overheard above, “They’ve started to turn, and attack each other. We need to move, now.”

Siora’s Search Check: 1d20+41 = 53 (Success)

Siora’s Disable Device check: 1d20+39 = 43 (Success)

Siora’s Open Lock check: 1d20+29 = 43 (Success)

We all made sure our weapons were to hand, but Siora just nodded, and hurried down the stairs to the left. In the same tone, she said, “Secret door here, just like I thought.” She examined it, for a moment, before looking off the ledge, into the water below. Reaching down into the cistern, she moved as though turning a crank, until we heard an audible click. She then moved to one part of the wall, and pressed a hidden panel in. With a thunk, the door popped open an inch, only then revealing itself to our eyes.

Siora looked up as she dried her hand. “There was a mechanism to open the door, but it was trapped. Harpoon trap. Think it was designed to drag someone under the water. Thankfully, finding the release was easy enough. Probably something similar on the other door, for people who aren’t unlocking it from the tunnel side.”

“Good work. Keep going, and see if they decided to put another collapsing ceiling trap, or worse, on the other side. We’ll follow when you say.”

“Run, Tim’ee! Take your sister and hide in the well. Hurry!”

A mother’s yell from up above cut into our deliberations. Looking up, shadows moved across the light coming down from the well. Two children, a boy and a girl elf, were hurrying down the ladder, into the well. Fuck.

Suddenly, silence fell, as Siora muttered a spell. Not true silence, actually. Just that a twenty-foot orb of silence descended upon the room, including the well itself. That cut off the cries from above, but also made it so no one would hear what happened down here.

I looked over to the undead captain. “No survivors, and no witnesses. Make it quick. We can’t afford to slow down, now that things have started.”

Captain Jack nodded, once. “Aye, lassie.” He pointed to two of his raiders, and then pointed at the children, who were almost to the bottom of the ladder, now. They nodded, and moved up the stairs to get into position.

As we followed Siora into the lower passage, I heard a pair of screams from behind, that were quickly cut off. Good. They would have died, regardless. Everyone in this city was going to die, unless they could prove that they were free of the taint, but that didn’t mean they had done anything to me that deserved ‘special attention’.

Too many people who got a taste of power started getting full of themselves, and started doing things just because they could. They got drunk on power, and almost always ended up destroying themselves as they eventually bit off more than they could chew. Especially when it came to the dark stuff. Torturing, killing, and the like.

Oh, I wasn’t above a bit of torture or killing, myself. Frostmaiden knows I had done enough of it, in my time. But I usually had a reason for it. I never killed or tortured someone without a reason, even if that reason just happened to be that they got in my way whilst I was on a quest.

Torturing someone to get information, or to make them pay for a betrayal? That was just fine. Torturing them because it got you off? That was a good way to lose control of yourself. And the people who lost control were the ones that tended to end up very dead, because they drew too much attention to themselves before they were in a position where they could actually take on all comers.

I was no saint, but that didn’t mean I had to be a rabid dog, biting people for no reason. I just wanted to follow Auril’s commands, slaughter fools who got in my way, and live my best life, the life I never got to do in my old world. Drawing entire churches to send crusades after me, or at least the very good, very smart assassins, was not on my to do list.

Not again. Not after last time. I lost one friend like that, and I wouldn’t let it happen again.

“I think this is it!”

I shook my head, getting rid of the idle thoughts. I didn’t have time for that, now. Looking ahead, I saw Siora opening another door in the dimly lit passage. Compared to the candlelight, the torches in the room might as well have been the noon sun. Still, it was clear enough where we were, now. The tunnel had led us to the crypts beneath the palace!

I took a breath, and moved up to the front, along with Captain Jack. “All right. Looks like we’re in. Time to get to work.”

“And just what kind of work is that, hmm?”