A little fun in the night!!

20 Flowermoon 4639 AC
 
As we were preparing to leave for our night mission a Lt. Gloryhall came to us in our barracks with orders for Alva to be reassigned who knows where but that is not our business. He also brought us a Marine Sgt. Airaion Mithethas to assist in our objective. He seems to fit right in with our little group and glad to have him with us.
 
As we approached the tavern a few of us noticed they had posted a sentry across the road in the second-story window. Crowley did his usual underhanded mischief and dispatched him quickly and quietly so as not to raise any alarms. Sgt Mithethas then proceeded to climb up and stabilize the individual while also restraining him for further questioning. Depriving him of his belt pouches and weapons we soon discovered that he was a mage due to the spell components in his pouches. We then proceeded to the tavern and had to dispatch yet another sentry through stealth, a Crowley specialty. Upon entering the tavern we discovered that the hidden passageway was not a mechanical endeavour but an illusion hiding the entrance. We entered and descended down a flight of stairs into a very dark tunnel. Crowley leading the way until we reached a room in which there were three ogres and a group of elves. Most of the elves were prisoners chained to the floor so they could not escape, however, one of the elves was in collusion with the ogres. Understanding that we were unlikely to be effective against all of them by ourselves we called upon the platoon of Marines awaiting our signal and devised a plan to empty the room of its occupants. Crowley pulled the three ogres out of the room but the elf stayed behind with the prisoners and decided to hold one as a hostage and humanoid shield. We rushed him and quickly subdued him. Once he was unconscious we tied him up and proceeded to free the prisoners. The Sgt, Auravel and Ardan guarded the other entrance to the room in case reinforcements showed up while Selene freed the prisoner. I had an idea and left to accomplish it then thought better of it and returned to help free prisoners. The expected reinforcements did arrive, however, the entrance was blocked and defended, just as the last prisoners were released. Dragging lengths of chain to where we could throw them at the enemy over the heads of our compatriots Selene and I did just that while the others held back the onslaught of rogues.
 
Unfortunately, we were outnumbered. However, due to the confined space and tactics of our fighter oriented crew, we were able to hold them off and route them. This led to a chase until we encountered the proverbial fork in the road. Upon reaching the three-way split we pulled back to regroup and discuss further tactics. It was decided to call in the Marines to hold the passageways which we did not explore.
 
I was not privy to the happenings to which Crowley, Yazma, Xerxes and Vonvin were participating in. Crowley did fill us in on the minor details that the ogres did not fare well and that the refugees had made it out at least to the common room of the tavern where Vonvin, Yazma and Xerxes were attending to them.
 
Once we regrouped we discovered that Carisa Eywecrescent was with the group so we informed her that she has been missed. Grabbing fifteen of the twenty-five Marines we descending back into the mine to try and find the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Once we retraced our steps to the three-way junction we broke up into three groups with five marines each. I led one down the right-hand tunnel, Selene led the second down the middle tunnel, while Xerxes was placed in charge of the third, down the left-hand tunnel. In my group I elected to have VonVin and Ardan, Selene was given Auraval and Sgt. Airaion, which left Yazma and Crowley with Xerxes. The divisions were tactical in nature since trying to split up Yazma and Crowley would be a big mistake.
 
My group followed the tunnel until we reached the bottom which led into the city sewer system, at which point we knew there was no way to track them if they had come that way so we headed back. Upon reaching the three-way once again we found two of the marines stationed there with intel for us. I decided that splitting our forces would be the most beneficial at that point so I assigned one of the marines to remain with the two already there as rear guard. Sending VonVin and Ardan off with two of the marines to trace Selene's group when we heard a loud "BANG" I told them to double-time it down the passageway to assist our comrades, while I took the last two marines and followed the final tunnel which held Xerxes and company. My opinion was that each group might need backup and since Selene was in the one group that meant I had no choice but to regroup with Xerxes and take command.
 
Upon catching up with them it was discovered that they had followed the tunnel to its inevitable termination in the wilderness outside of town. There was no way I was going to abandon my shipmates in the mines so I had two Marines stay to guard the entrance while I collected the others to rally with our compatriots. Since I couldn't order Crowley to come he decided to track the escaping vagabonds on his own. Xerxes asked permission to follow with two of the marines to make sure Crowley stayed safe. I granted permission, which left Yazma, myself and two marines to retrace our steps in order to catch up to Selene and company. On our way we passed the site of her first battle though I wouldn't call it much of a battle more of an improvised ambush where the two "guards" were easily dispatched and two of the marines were assisting prisoners out of a pit and to freedom. We continued to follow at double time until we reached a chasm with a bridge over it. Of course, the bridge was designed for the mining carts where we caught up with Selene and her party. Almost running into an ambush ourselves set up by our own people because they were unaware that we were trying to catch up to them.
 
Once we made our way across the bridge we discovered a freight elevator. Well, we didn't know what the terrain was like below it so we decided to prepare a back-up escape scenario where we could dismantle the bridge once we were back to the cavern with the pit if the need arose. As we were finishing those preparations, Crowley and Xerxes caught up to us, thus completing our compliment minus a few marines who were either running rearguard or assisting others in accessing freedom. We quickly headed back to the elevator and devised a plan on how to scout out the terrain without raising an alarm. Crowley who is our scout extraordinaire climbed down the shaft and discovered a lone guard at the bottom of the shaft which he eliminated in a very "cat-like" manner which is he pounced on the guard and separated life from body. When we heard his howl we knew there was no way to maintain any element of surprise, which we had essentially tossed out the proverbial window anyway since the freight elevator was not going to a quiet means of digress down the shaft we quickly embarked to descend to the bottom. Sending the marine who turned to crank to lower us down back up to collect his fellow marines. We proceeded to investigate the area and found there was really only one tunnel out. Crowley, as usual, took off to investigate, he needs no warning from us, as his wont and pretty much directive in such instances. He reported that the tunnel ended in a cavern with about a dozen slaves mining the diamonds and six "assholes" overseers with whips. At which point Selene and I made the command decision to attack and free the slaves. We would, of course, have to kill some of the overseers as there was no way our motley crew would be able to take them all alive for questioning. We did still have the first elf chained upstairs in the original room where we freed the first set of prisoners. During the conflict Crowley and I tried to free the prisoners who were being forced to mine the diamonds. I am not entirely sure what went on behind be as I was focused on the task at hand. I did however overhear the sounds of battle. As none of my companions called out for assistance, I figured they had everything well in hand.