As the party beats a retreat over the stone bridge, the maul-wielded and wolf follow only up to the gate. Atop the tower, the dwarf infused with renewed life jumps down and lands just outside the gate behind the party.

"FLEE INFIDELS! THE JUSTICE OF MORADIN WILL BE HAMMER TO YOUR TAINTED ORE!" . Strange that the supposed avatar does not follow over the bridge, but stands sentinel between the party and the keep they materialized in.

As the group gets closer to see Merroda, they see the "Anvil" that is coming up the road to meet them.

Unconsciously taking a few steps back from the cliff edge Merroda quickly scans the immediate area for an alternative - her eyes settling on the raised manhole. Keeping low she scrambles up the rock face and peers inside, hoping to see if it may provide a means of escape. Her studies are interrupted however when she hears the sound of approaching feet. Spinning around to face the threat she again calls up the same fires from before - only to dismiss them when she sees the woman from before (and a new elven face with them). Pointing over the cliff edge she calls down to them.

"One of you mind explaining to me who in the nine hells you are that makes you important enough to send an entire army against?" Not waiting for a response she turns back to the manhole and attempts to pull open the grate covering it.

The cover is heavy but sliding it isn't too hard for a tiefling in mortal danger to handle. Dragging it away reveals a shaft wide enough, she supposes, for a broad-shouldered dwarf to descend. Iron "U" shaped rungs are embedded in one wall. It appears to descend quite awhile...just to the end of Merroda's vision where she can dimly make out a tunnel floor.

As Maulim dashed off the bridge, he bent down to pick up the crossbow from the dwarf that was now lying there unconscious. Once he reached the far side, he stopped to catch his breath and saw one of the others who had been in the courtyard dragging away at something on the ground.

He caught the end of her question and responds: Right now I personally don't care what anyone did, I think we would be better off discussing it once we are somewhere other than here.

Maulim

The rungs are solid. That's one thing Merroda knows about dwarves on Forge...so fastidious about stone work that even a drainage pipe would be perfectly made.

Merroda nearly halts on her way down. "On Forge?" she had thought, and with it, in not thinking about it too hard, she knew something...this world was Forge, home of dwarves and giants, and thus one of many other worlds...one of which she was undoubtedly from...

Up top, the dwarven force continues its quickened march. A horn sounds from the army, a mix of maybe eight long and short blasts. From the keep where battle was just fought, a different sequence of blasts answers

Maulim pauses and fumbles while trying to decide the best way to carry a crossbow down. After a few seconds, he tries to place the bow over his arm and is able to make slow progress down the rungs. As he is the last one to reach it, he then spent an extra few seconds trying to move the manhole cover back in place and then resumes his climb down.

Corinne deftly uses the tip of her spear to slide the manhole back into place. She lands lightly on the tunnel floor and examines her surroundings.

For those with dark vision, the tunnel doesn't offer many options. One direction, sloping downward with a low ceiling of only five feet in height though wide enough for everyone to move with arms outstretched.

For the humans, the closing of the manhole cover seals off all light whatsoever. They are more acutely aware of the faint aroma of rot from the tunnel, the dryness of the walls, the sound of their panting breath resonating off the walls. It is, quite simply, terrifying and after both smack their heads painfully on the low ceiling, they realize that they will have to walk stooped over completely blind unless someone has a light source they can conjure.

As of yet, no sounds from above. The army should be near though.

Merroda sighs as she hears the distinct smack of bone on rock behind her. Turning round as best she can she shakes her head in frustration. "...well I suppose I can't let you kill yourselves headbutting rock. I still need you to tell me what you've done that got us into this mess. Okay human with the spear - stick out your left arm. Human without a spear - put out your right. Now wave them around until you hit each other. Right now keep hold of each other." The humans now aware of each others location Merroda snakes out her tail into Ming-Na's unoccupied hand. "Right. Now keep hold of that and try to keep up. And god's help me if you pull it I will leave you to die in the dark. Now, half-elf, do something useful and scout ahead. The sooner I'm not leading these two around the better."

Maulim smiles and then simply says Agreed.

At that point he carefully clambered his way around the others thinking while doing so that he is kind of glad that the ladies had at least found clothing so this was...less awkward. He then picked himself up and continued down the tunnel as quietly as he could and doing his best to notice any threats before they noticed him.

Every footfall, every breath, any scrape of a spear against the walls echoes and resonates so it's nearly impossible to detect if the dwarves are pursuing. The tunnel descends fairly steeply at about fifteen degrees. For those who can see, there are occasional holes in the wall from which dribble small trickles of water, mostly rainwater. At their feet, the stone is damp and becoming increasingly slick. After about 400-500 yards, the tunnel evens out and sixty feet later opens up into a domed semi-sphere which serves as a junction of five equidistant tunnels all of similar dimensions. There is no manhole cover here. The floor is a couple inches deep of scum-topped runoff water. The smell of rot is stronger here.

There is a rotted crate between the two tunnels directly opposite your entrance. Sitting on it hunched over is a weasely looking man, with patchy facial hair, an unattractive nose that points up a bit, and slicked back greasy brown hair in a mullet style. His clothes are ratty and stained, even according to the standards of dark vision, a marked contrast to the folded linen held in his arms. He has no light source, but the human man looks up at the party's entrance and nods to those who can see him.

Is that linen for me, how kind of you. I hope it was intended for clothing and not burials although I guess I am buried alive. So, may I ask who I should thank and what you are doing here? I would introduce myself but a certain confusing sequence of events seems to have made me forget even my own name. Also, do you have a suggestion for a good way away from the local Moradin crazies and towards even better clothing, useful gear and someone who can explain this situation to us?

Maulim cheerfully greets the man but stumbles a little bit on the way over and seems to take a while to actually reach the individual with linen.

The man looks very perplexed at the series of questions and comments. He licks his lips nervously and his eyes flicker down towards the short sword at his hip.

This isn't for you...the under tunnels crawl with predators so one must be prepared. Skaggs was told there would be six, but I hear and smell only three others...women, yes? he says with a rattling voice and smiles knowingly, perhaps leeringly, at Maulim. But sensing this isn't the correct thing to say, he clears his throat.

Just as well, he adds, one of the outfits...ah...fell...into less clean water than this. I have but five tunics. the immaculately folded garments contrast sharply with dirt-smeared hands and who knows what filth under his fingers. Skaggs was told not to ask questions, so I shall bring you to Koli; he can hide you...

He smiles again, his teeth appearing to be small and rather pointed and brown. quite a commotion in the first ward tonight; and yet you come from the third, yes??

Corinne is alarmed by the voice. "I can't see! What's happening? Where are we?"