Going to church again

We are taking the back way to the elemental temple. We haven't seen any soldiers thus far. It's possible they returned to the temple after Hommlet was retaken. It's also possible we are being left unmolested so we can be set up later.

Of course, that doesn't mean we didn't encounter any trouble at all.

Humanoids have swept through the area, as they typically do during the chaos of war. We dispatched a band of hobgoblins. We let a few go so we could track them back to their lair, which was fortunately close. We wiped them out quickly. Cruel? Perhaps, but hobgoblins only live for pillaging, looting, and raping. The wood elves can handle themselves, but there are many farmsteads to the west which would be easy prey. Back home we have rats. Here they have humanoids.

We made good time, considering the delays. The temple is probably only another few hours a way, but it's late and we need to rest and heal before we enter the temple once more. This time, though, we have a better plan than a frontal assault. From the wood elves we learned precisely where the exit to the tunnel was located (the one from the temple tower). We're going to enter via that route instead of walking straight in. Granted, we have to enter the main complex by the usual means, but perhaps we can do it with a little more stealth this time around.

But that's tomorrow.

Before I sleep, I should probably finish my tale about how we rescued the children.

-----------------------

We continued down the large hall. It was easily forty feet wide. Bones and broken furniture littered the floor, but a well worn path led through the debris to the other end of the hall some two hundred feet down. Old tapestries still hung on the hall in places. You could still make out the typical temple scenes--murder, pillaging, raping.

I really wish I had some C-4.

In the distance we heard fighting. It had continued for some time now. It seemed that the water temple had found the fire temple and was taking their revenge for the sacking of their temple. The ruse worked, but for how long?

The elemental air priest, Prefect Kelno, led us, dejectedly.

"How much further?" Marc asked.

"The end of this hall," he said. He continued to scowl.

"You look depressed," I said. "The temples are fighting each other like you wanted. What's the problem?"

"You destroyed the last of my followers," he said. "You have brought ruin upon me."

"You brought ruin upon yourself, fool," Audry said. She kept close to him. Her hand never left the hilt of her sheathed sword. "You chose the wrong path in life."

"I chose the path to power," the Prefect said. "How is that wrong?"

"Well for starters," Anna said, "you don't look very powerful."

He sneered. "What does a woman know?"

"She knows how to eliminate your minions, for one," Saul said. "You know, given everything we've done so far, what gave you the idea you could actually threaten us into doing your bidding."

"A foolish error, I admit," the Prefect said. "I underestimated you."

"Your greed destroyed you," Audry said. "As well as your foolishness, your pride--"

"That is enough woman," the Prefect said. He turned sharply to face her. "I suggest you hold your tongue. I am not as weak as my minions, and your god cannot save you from me."

"And your element of air can't save you from us," I said. "You better chill. Now."

He looked at me for a moment. After everything I had been through, staring me down was a bad idea. He finally gave up and moved on.

The hall came to an end at last. Or rather, it split into three smaller hallways. One went left, the other right, and one down the center. The Prefect led us down the center one. We followed it for a short ways, passing a couple of doors and then stopping at a third.

"In here," the Prefect said with a sigh. "They are in here."

"Thank you," Audry said. She grabbed the Prefect by the collar and flipped him over her hip. He landed on the floor with a thud. She pulled out a piece of rope and proceeded to hog tie him. Saul helped her.

"What is this!" Audry hit him in the back of the head and he quieted down. "You betray me?"

"I don't trust you," she said. "You are sure about the guards?"

He growled. "It is as I have described it, holy woman. I will not lie to you. Indeed, your actions disrupt the temple that has betrayed me."

"Well, everyone's betraying you these days, huh?" Anna said. "You need a new line of work."

"Wait here," Saul said, and patted the Prefect's head. He jerked away angrily, struggling at his tied hands and feet.

Anna knocked on the door in the pattern indicated by the Prefect. Something grumbled on the other side of the door. The lock clicked over, and the door opened.

"What?" the bugbear on the other side demanded. I charged and side kicked the door. It flew open and sent the bugbear staggering backward.

"Hey, watch it!" An ogre stepped into view. I side stepped and kicked out his knee. He fell to his knees. I spun and circle kicked him in the face. His nose exploded and fell over backwards.

I stared at his body, blinking. I just KO'd an ogre. Hell yeah!

The bugbear held up his hands when everyone else came into the room. They looked at the bleeding ogre on the ground.

"Nice work, John," Saul said. He looked at the bugbear. "You, where are the prisoners."

He pointed to door in the room. It was made of a thick wood and bronze. "And more down the hall," he added, pointing to a side passage within the room itself.

"Keys," Audry said. It wasn't a question.

The bugbear pointed to a hook on the wall. Keys hung there. I grabbed them and opened the door. Over a dozen young faces greeted me. The place smelled of human waste. They probably had no other place to go but here. From the looks of them, they had very little to eat anyway.

Each of them raised their hands.

I stepped toward them. They flinched. I could see wounds on their body from open sores. They had whip marks on them as well.

Oh God, I can't wait until we kill every one of these mother--

"There are more down here," Anna said from down the hall. "A lot more."

"Gods," Audry whispered. "Look at them."

"We'll worry about that later," Marc said. "We have to leave, now."

Anna had opened the cells and herded the children toward the room exit. I had no idea how we could get them out of here quietly. But we had to try. God, they looked scared.

I knelt and looked at each of them. "Who wants to get out of here?"

Feebly, they raised their hands.

---------------------------

Audry kept her word and released the Prefect once we returned to his chambers. He spoke truthfully regarding the guards in the prison and he also spoke truthfully about the about the passage through his personal chambers. That passage led back to the passage that led us here. Soon, we were on the sloping passage that led up to the next level.

"You know the way from here?" he asked.

"Yes," Audry said. She cut him loose. "Get out of my sight."

He scurried away like a freed animal.

"What a pathetic little man," Audry said.

"Think he'll rat us out?" Anna asked.

"I think he wants to see this place destroyed as much as we do," Marc said. "If he can't rule it, no one can."

We continued up the sloped passage and then up the nearby stairs to the temple proper.

"I think we did it," I said.

"We're not in the open yet," Saul said.

We continued to the vestibule, children in toe. They moved slowly, but we didn't hurry them. I thought about how far it was to Hommlet and wondered if they could make it.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of combat outside.

"Wait here," Anna said. She pulled the hood up on her cloak and virtually disappeared. The children gasped silently as her transparent form scurried through the semi-darkness of the temple and into the vestibule. The side door up ahead opened briefly and then shut again. For a moment I saw nothing more, and then her form shimmered before us as she removed her hood.

"A whole lot of fighting out there," she said.

"Did the temples bring their war out here?" Saul asked.

"I don't think so," Anna said. "It looks like...well, come see for yourself.

We went to the front of the temple. The large bronze doors covered in runes loomed before us. Some of the children started to cry at the sight of it. Audry comforted them, whispering soothing words to them. Audry and Anna stayed with the children as Marc, Saul, and I went out the side door.

It was a good sized battle all right. Bodies were everywhere, bodies of men wearing black cloaks with a yellow eye in the center. The few remaining men fought on against a couple of dozen elves. In the distance I saw the flash of light from a spell. Whatever it was, it seemed to highlight the elves briefly. It emboldened them. She stood a good distance away, but I could still see her face.

"Is that--?" I started.

"It is," Marc said. "Well, that is a surprise."

We readied our weapons and stepped forward, but it was already over. The remaining soldiers turned tail and ran. They received arrows in their backs. Wood elves are not forgiving.

When it was done the elves approached us, along with the priestess who aided them. They bowed as she approached. The priestess who led them, I corrected myself.

"You," I said.

She nodded. She looked better than when we rescued her some days ago. She was cleaned up and healed.

"It's good to see you again," I said.

She nodded briefly. "And you as well. I would be dead had you not saved me."

"Part of the job," Saul said.

"You are well?" she asked us. She did not smile.

Saul nodded. "We are find, but they need some help."

"They?" she asked.

"Children," I said. "Captured by temple followers." I leaned to Marc. "Do we want them to see all these corpses?"

"I'm sure they have seen worse in recent days," Saul said. "Seeing their captors dead could do little harm." Saul stepped inside the temple and gestured. Soon Anna came out with the children. Audry brought up the rear.

"Dear gods," the priestess said. She looked upon the children almost coldly. Wood elves, I thought. Would they help us, or would they decide they had helped us enough and cut us loose. The children sat and shivered in the outside air. Some shielded their eyes in the meager light that shown through the cloud cover. It looked like it might start to rain.

"Come," the priestess said at last. I didn't get her name. Even now I do not know it. "I'm sure these little ones will wish to come home."

For the first time since we freed them--probably since they were first captured--the children smiled.