The small child from the little, ramshackle village beside the muddy oasis laughed and giggled as she danced around the kank dung fire. Other children rushed up and joined her and the adults looked on with smiles on their faces. But the old ashik did not smile, his eyes held a thousand yard stare as they remembered happy times in his long life similar to this, but he did not smile because he knew that this harsh world had a habit of stealing that happiness as quickly as it appeared. As the children fell exhausted into their parents arms a hush came over the villagers and their eyes turned towards the old ashik, the old man took a swig of water and cleared his throat before picking up his story once again.

The sartorially dressed feral halfling Fleck sat down on the edge of Balboa’s bed, his eyes never leaving Scar and the grin never leaving his face, and tells them that the Weary Artisan has an entrance into the Under Tyr and that Krakus the Mul charges people to enter the Under Tyr, he then charges double for people to exit. After a short discussion they agree to meet at the Golden Inix just before sun down and head for the Weary Artisan together, they will then secure entry to the Under Tyr where Fleck will lead them through to the doors that will give them access to the basement of the Ziggurat. As Fleck is leaving he turns to them and says;

After tomorrow I am no longer a slave. I am either dead or I am free!

Once Fleck has left them Arthur suggests that it might be wise to try and secure some more weezer honey as they only have one dose each. Kank agrees to escort Balboa to the Elven market to see if they can find some, armed with only daggers they take thirty pieces of silver and set out into the city. The city streets are very busy and there is an air of excitement for the opening ceremony as the pair of Muls make their way past the Ziggurat and into Shadow Square.

They wander around the stalls taking it all in and eventually Balboa stops at a spice seller and asks if they have any weezer honey, or if they know where they could get some. The spice trader, an Elf with an eye patch, points across the market to a ramshackle yellow and white striped awning hanging from the side of a derelict building and says that he should try the alchemists. When they arrive they are greeted by two very shady looking Elves one of whom asks what Balboa wants. He replies;

Weezer honey!

The other Elf asks;

Are you buying or selling?

Balboa says that he is buying and that he will give them twenty silver pieces for fives doses. The Elves look at each other and speak in their sing song tongue, one of them looks back at Balboa and says;

Twenty five!

While this haggling is going on Kank feels a slight tug on his belt and as he spins around he sees another Elf disappearing into the crowd, he feels at his belt and realises with some annoyance that one of his daggers has been stolen. He frantically checks and discovers that the thief has made off with his obsidian dagger, he swears loudly but turns back to make sure that Balboa is alright. He discovers that Balboa has managed to get the weezer honey for twenty two silver pieces and so he counts out the coins and hands them over to the Elf, who in return hands him five gourds.

Balboa checks all five and discovers that one of them is not weezer honey, but just honey and he points this out to the Elves. The Elves take one look at the already angry musclebound Kank and quickly apologise and exchange it for the correct gourd. The pair of Muls then quickly head back to the Golden Inix.

Just before dusk the group were following Fleck through the streets of Tyr headed for the area known as the Brickyards. Fleck skirts around the massive slave pens and leads them into an area of derelict dwellings that is only slightly better than the Warrens. He leads them to a building that is the only one standing in small area of ruins, hanging on the outside of the building is a sign depicting a tired Dwarf, and with a flourish of his hand Fleck says;

The Weary Artisan!

The group enters and finds a small table, the bar is very busy and is full of heavy set manual workers all covered in brick dust. Every eye in the bar focuses on the tall lithe form of Scar and for a moment you could hear a pin drop as the group realise that Scar is the only female in the bar, but the clientele slowly return to their beer and the noise level rises again. They send Balboa to the bar and he orders six beers, the large Mul behind the bar says that he will bring them over in a moment.

A few minutes later the Mul, who must be the proprietor Krakus, slops six tankards onto the table. Before he heads off again Balboa asks in a low voice;

We are interested in entering the Under Tyr.

Krakus looks around the table and his eyes rest on Fleck, the feral Halfling appears to make a small gesture and Krakus looks back at Balboa and nods.

It’ll cost ya one silver piece each to get in. And two silver pieces each to get out!

Balboa hands him six silver pieces and Krakus tells Balboa to give him a nod when they are ready to head in. Krakus heads back to the bar and the group quietly agree to leave it for an hour before they head down. A few minutes later one of the dust coated men from the bar saunters over to the table and tries to strike up a conversation with Scar, Scar just ignores him and then Fleck leans forwards;

Can’t you see that she is with me? Now sod off!

The man looks like he is about to say something when Arthur and Kank stand up. He takes one look at the thickly corded muscles on the pair of them and decides that it is best to retreat. When he returns to his friends it is obvious that they are crying with laughter at him.

Once they are ready Balboa signals to Krakus and the Mul leads the group through a staff door at the back of the bar, he lights a torch and then takes them through another narrow door that opens up onto a flight of steps leading down into the darkness. At the bottom of the winding staircase is a chamber of dressed stone, in the middle of the floor is a massive stone slab connected to a block and pulley system. The slab is also secured in place with iron pins and a large iron padlock, Krakus removes the padlock and uses a winch to hoist the stone slab up. It reveals a dark hole in the floor and the group can just make out the end of a wooden ladder. Krakus gestures to the hole and says;

The ladders will take you down through several floors, on the first floor that you get to there is a gong, if you want to come back out sound the gong and I’ll come and open up. Make sure that you have the payment ready.

With that, Krakus steps back and Scar lights a torch from Krakus’ and starts to climb down the ladder, the rest of the group follow her. The first ladder drops twenty foot to another room, this one is dominated by a chiten gong. Balboa points at the windows, beyond which only packed earth can be seen, and his implication is clear, this must once have stood above ground and was probably a tower of some sort. There is another ladder down and the group continue downwards, as they are arriving in the next room there is a loud thud as the heavy stone slab is closed by Krakus, even though they know it can be lifted again with a bash of the gong, it feels symbolic.

The group climbed down through a further two more rooms before reaching the bottom of the tower, Balboa said that he believed that they had descended almost one hundred feet below the city. Fleck took the lead and headed along the winding tunnel that left the tower bottom, the tunnel did not appear man made and in fact looked more like it had been burrowed by a large creature. After a short distance it opened up into another room, as soon as they started to enter something felt off kilter about the room, and it wasn’t until Kank pointed out that the windows in this room were horizontal that they realised that they were traversing yet another tower, but one that had collapsed onto its side.

The burrowed tunnel opened up into what must have once been a row of small properties that were now interlinked by holes smashed through their walls. Fleck continues to push onwards and the group follow him, he looks back at them and assures them that they are heading East as he passes through a doorway and into another passage tunneled out of the packed earth. The narrow passage runs for twenty feet and then widens as it passes an old well, Fleck pauses briefly and points to the well;

Down there would also get us to the base of the tower but it is a longer and more dangerous route.

They leave the well behind them and move back into the narrow passage, it eventually opens up into a large room and Fleck quickly crosses the room and heads west through a doorway and through another two rooms before coming to yet another narrow tunnel headed north. When they reach the next room Fleck heads west again into a low passage that he is able to walk along, the others however, are forced to scramble through on their hands and knees and are concerned to see bits of debris fall from the ceiling as they pass.

Fleck continues to lead the group north through yet another collapsed room where they are once again forced to scramble. Fleck makes it across the room without any issues but Balboa and Kank are both struck by falling debris, most of it glances harmlessly off of their armour but a particularly large rock injures Kank’s right arm. Unable to go backwards the group are forced to continue and once again a rock falls from the ceiling and strikes Kank a blow to his head, but eventually they make it to a more stable room and Scar is able to administer first aid to Kank while the others look into the next low tunnel that they will have to traverse.

There is a large hole in the middle of the next tunnel that they have to cross and so Kank suggests that they rope themselves together, Fleck refuses as he believes that he is safer not burdened by the others. Fleck crosses and is followed by Kank, Scar is next but as she is circumnavigating the hole the floor beneath her collapses and she plunges down into the darkness. Balboa, who was next in line behind Scar, is dragged rapidly towards the edge of the hole, as is Kank. Kank manages to brace himself at the edge of the yawning hole but Balboa tumbles in after Scar, Arthur and Miloch manage to get purchase and Scar’s descent is slowed so that when she touches the ground she is uninjured.

Scar shouts that she is in some kind of aqueduct but can’t see much, but then she goes very quiet as a chill of fear creeps across her mind. She shouts;

There is something down here with me! Get me out!

Kank calls upon the power of the Earth ring boosting his already mighty strength, and he and Arthur start to haul up both Balboa and Scar. Just as Balboa makes it to the edge of the hole they hear Scar shriek and Kank hauls on the rope even faster pulling her up hand over hand. They manage to drag her clear of the hole but it is clear that she has been injured in her arm. The group crawl to the next room and Kank sees to Scar’s wound, he says that it looks like the bite of a large creature.

Eventually they make it clear of the crumbling tunnels and Fleck leads them northeast to a T-junction in the path, he turns south and after a short walk they arrive at another open area with a well. Fleck raises his finger to his lips motioning for the group to remain quiet, he moves over to the well and looks down it, he turns back and whispers to them;

The bottom of this well opens out near to the doors that will lead to the escape route that we need to secure. But we must be quiet as there is likely to be guards.

They agree to lower Fleck down on a rope so that he can scout out the area. After a few minutes there is a tug on the rope and Kank hoists the diminutive Halfling back up through the well, he tells the group that there is a set of double doors guarded by two Half-giants in the livery of the Tyr guard. There are torches set in sconces on either side of the door, but other than that there does not appear to be any form of alarm. Both Half-giants are armoured and armed with massive bone war mauls. They agree that they have plenty of time to watch the guards and so Fleck and Kank are lowered the thirty foot to the corridor and settle in to keep watch on them.

During Fleck’s watch he sees the door open and a Human appears with water for the Half-giants, Fleck hears the Human ask if everything is quiet and the Half-giants say that it is boringly quiet. At what Fleck thinks is an hour after midnight the doors open again and two more Half-giants emerge and relieve the current guards who head back through the doors. Not long after Kank takes up the watch and Fleck climbs back up the rope to inform the others what is happening and Miloch climbs down ready for the next watch. The group work out that there is a guard change roughly every eight hours and a water break every two, and with this information they plan their attack.

As best as they can tell, just after midday they lower Arthur down the well, as soon as he is on the ground and free of the rope he disappears, reappearing a heartbeat later at the outer edge of the Half-giants torch light. He is silent and can now see beyond the Half-giants ready for his next teleport. The others slide down the rope and get themselves into position, Scar uses her powers to put a razor sharp edge on Miloch’s battleaxe while Balboa calls upon the gnomes of the earth to enchant Bone Crusher for Kank. And then Arthur disappears once again. Everyone hears one of the Half-giants say in a confused voice;

What’s that?

With that they all charge. Both Half-giants are looking at Arthur, who appeared out of thin air at the far end of the passageway, giving the freed slaves the benefit of surprise. One of the Half-giants hearing the rush of footsteps from behind it turned just in time to have the Sword of Kemalok stabbed deep into his chest by a ferocious Scar. The unfortunate individual then has his left leg cut out from beneath him by a swing of Miloch’s battleaxe, before Scar then slashes her sword through the meat of his left arm. The Half-giant collapses dead before he has had a chance to even register that he is under attack.

The other Half-giant has his wits about him and swings his massive war maul at Arthur who just manages to sidestep the blow, Arthur counterstrikes but the Half-giant parries the blow with his weapon. Kank rushes past Miloch and Scar and swings Bone Crusher at the remaining Half-giant, he catches him in his arm and hears the satisfying sound of the bones breaking. Momentarily, the group feel like they have gained the upper hand, and with that thought still in their heads the doors opened.