How a Den of Thieves tried to kill us and other strangeness. (25/03/2018)

So...
 
Agnes the formally unconscious elf sits up and quickly gets up to her feet like nothing has happened.
 
I sometimes wonder what she has been through in life to made cartwheeling past death door seem like just another stroll in the woods. I swear there is more behind those large amber eyes than just singing, dancing and talking to furniture.
 
Muhnus seems to be striding around confidently and Tarman appears to be fussing over his armour and the amount of dead sewer creature that is covering it. The Druid is pacing back and forth with his magic stick seeming to think more of the damn stink lizards might be on the way to eat us.
 
We pull ourselves together and set off down the tunnels again with a few torches fighting back the oppressive dankness. Somehow I end up at the front of all of us. At what appears the end of this bit of tunnel the stonework changes into something more formal and evenly cut and this sets off something in my head.
 
Turns out I’m not just paranoid as it seems some tripwire is set in this gateway. This isn’t a standard setup, I mean the mechanism is behind feet of solid stone if I judge right. We carefully avoid it as it doesn’t seem to be easy to disarm and step on past.
 
Agnes and Muhnus are striding off ahead again, out of the range of the torches. After disappearing for a bit they come back and motion for us to stop and cover the torches. They have seen a group of people ahead and Muhnus says he thinks he can speak to them without raising the alarm. I’m about to tell him that looking like he does and having gills might be an issue with all that, but before I can get a word in edgeways his face begins to blur and clothes melt.
 
Now standing before us is a non descript human male that has seen better days.
 
Walking off into the darkness again Muhnus joins 3 strangers round their campfire and we wait to find out what to do next.
 
Agnes suddenly stands up and shouts “DUCK!” while drawing an arrow and gesturing behind us. Next thing I know pain flares in my back and I drop forward to all fours. Tarman is muttering about his buttucks while crawling around and I reach for my crossbow through the pain. I fire off into the darkness but am unsure if I hit anything. Agnes is again reaching calmly into her quiver and loosing wooden shafts into the black.
 
Something in the darkness falls and the tunnel is lit up like a festival fire display. I can see 3 silhouettes around the stone gate we navigated past earlier and they are engulfed in fire. The smell hits just after and the cooking flesh doesn’t do wonders for my appetite. I stuggle to keep my earlier rations down and follow the party towards the commotion in the room we left Muhnus in.
A Melee has started and swords and curses are flying about the room. Noticing this I decide to take advantage of the fact.
Beginning to chant under my breath like I was shown before I concentrate. I reach out for one of the swords that has fallen, moving it away from the ruffian that was attacking my new friends. I then notice that what appears to be the bandit leader fumble his sword in an exchange with one of my companions. I reach out again and another sword is soon flying through the air to be added to my collection. Having taken a beating and now not having any weapons available does seem to take the fight out of the group and they surrender to us quickly.
 
Joshua, the bandit leader is claiming to have no connection to the 3 crispy fried killers who started this bloodbath and I look at the unconscious survivor of his group and tend to his wounds while securing his hands.
 
Joshua seems like quite a nice bloke really and I can’t see what has got Muhnus the human so angry, maybe he misses his gills or something. Some party members start going through the barracks room we find and I strike up a conversation with Joshua.
 
Joshua is talking about a city of thieves below the city and how this is a major guard post for it? I point out how we are reasonable people and if he helps us then we can secure him and leave him safe and sound. In exchange for being released when we come back this way he agrees not to sound the alarm on us and I don’t really see a reason to doubt him (Massive charisma). I strip him of his armour and remaining weapons and other people help with the placing of our captives in wine barrels that we have found.
 
Agnes begins singing while working on some wounds Tarman received during the fight and I wander off to see the burnt murderers that are back at the gate. The smell is quite overwhelming. They appear to be dead and there is nothing I can do for them not that I really feel inclined to at this point. Carefully avoiding the trap that roasted them, I move and strip the bodies. The nameless dead mean very little to anybody and are almost unrecognisable. Next they are pushed into a watery grave in case someone else is following us. If they somehow overlook the smell then we don’t want them finding the bodies.
 
With my growing collection of equipment being to much to carry a 3rd wine barrel becomes the home for the extra stuff I can’t carry that doesn't seem worth much.
 
So it looks like our trip for the little black book has run into a complication. A whole city of cutthroats now probably lie between us and our goal.
 
Realizing that we might not have much time before someone checks in with this guard post we decide to move on.
 
Almost immediately the architecture around and ahead of us is changing into finely carved and set marble and we enter a great domed room. It seems mirrors are reflecting natural sunlight into the room and to one side a curved wall has ornate writing and script carved into it. This is all situated above a large slab or table of some kind. Arayne and Agnes seem to grow quite agitated and begin speaking in an unknown language to each other. I step near to them and begin to concentrate on the scripture calling on the world weave to show itself to me. The wall and slab light up as the magical essence within them glows to my sight. As this is going on Agnes reaches into the wall and pulls what can only be a cleverly concealed lever. In a flash we disappear.
 
*Time Freeze*