The party on the far side engaged the two fighters and quickly disposed of them to allow the rest to cross the pit more safely. Once across, they moved forward to the junction to find a main cross passage - to the right a door, whilst to the left it sloped away down into the gloom; ahead off-set to either side of their passage, were two more short corridors leading to closed doors.
The swordmage crept down to the right door and listening, heard low growls followed by a brief human 'shush'. The rest of the party grouped round the junction and after a short time the end door pulled open to allow attack dogs out. They ran past the swordmage, who slashed at those he could; some stopped to engage him whilst others moved towards the party. Within seconds fighters opened the other doors and moved forward to harry the party from the sides. A drawn out & fluid fight ensued and the party were hard set by a changing number of opponents, who used their knowledge of the area layout to some advantage. Dwindling numbers however, forced the assassins to retreat back into the as yet unseen rooms behind the doors and the party pursued them to prevent any alarm being raised.
Determining the doors led to a kennel and a bunkroom or barracks area, the party moved off down the gloomy corridor, still searching for the captive children. Coming to a small junction space, they had the choice of a sharply descending left-hand passage - from which they heard a continous rumbling noise and felt dampness in the air - and a shorter level passage to the right ending at a door. They choose the door first and moved carefully towards it, prepared to enter and engage more opponents.
The door meant the party entered in file and the found themselves in the side of a T shaped room, near the bottom. An opponent had used the door for cover to attack party members as they passed by, another had used a table for cover and quickly engaged, whilst a third moved down quickly from further up the room. Some of the party manoeuvred round the assassins and found others lurking in one side area, they released attack dogs and battled to move into the main room. They put up a stiff resistance but were unable to match the aggression shown by the party and were soon defeated. The party found two children locked in a cage in the opposite wing of the room; releasing them, the party decided to press on and instructed the children to remain safely in the room.
The party retraced their steps and then descended the other passage until they reached a chasm crossing their path; a fissure had split the rock and crossed the passageway leaving a rough cave, a waterfall to the right was the source of the earlier noise and dampness. A rough slat bridge had been strung over the chasm, which the party used to cross over. Using the rude steps hacked from the rock on the far side, they regained the original passage to be jumped by another pair of fighters - but by now the had their measure and dispatched them both in short order.
Moving on they came to another room and found more guards with three more children in a cage at the rear. Disposing of the guards, they released the children and told them to go back to the other room and stay with the other children. They moved on, down a longer winding corridor, until they came to a heavy closed door - the rogue slipped through and found a wide annexe behind witha heavy drape across the far end. Moving carefully forward he found a break in the drape and spied out the far side.
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