An uneasy alliance

The rogue had got to a position to see into the main chamber and spied a diverse group spread around the space - a broad solidly built individual, cloaked and hooded stood with his back to the drape; there were two goblins close to him (bearing the mark of the Red Hand), four drow towards the far left rear of the room and five humans lounging mostly around the right side of the room. The broad man was berating one of the goblins and the rogue listened intently as he continued his tirade in a gruff rasping voice -

"... you didn't stop them then; sounds to me like failure? I won't tolerate failure. The Lady doesn't tolerate failure either!"
He suddenly grasped the goblin by the neck and with a powerful twist broke it, before throwing its lifeless body to the ground.
"That's the penalty for failure." He then pointed at the drow. "The Lady holds to the treaty, tell your mistress that nothing is changed".
One of the drow then turned and left through the far door; the broad man gestured towards the humans and they started to discuss the captives.

Noting two doors in the rear wall and a third on the left wall, together with a clutter of crates and barrels piled randomly round the chamber - the rogue chose this point to slip back to the rest of the group as it sounded like they could be discovered at any moment. He relayed what he had observed and then they all entered and approached the drape, managing it with reasonable stealth.

Reaching the drape, they paused before rushing the occupants of the room beyond - the three remaining drow fighters intially hung back, whilst the humans closed from the sides of the room bracketing their leader and the remaining goblin in the centre. The party ignored the drow at first, hoping to even the numbers should they decide to join the fight against them - the human fighters were comparable to those they had encountered throughout the warren of the assassin lair, the goblin although tough had little skill and only the hooded, cloaked leader gave any serious opposition to the party; occasional glimpses showed the heavy features of a Half Orc.

The rogue started flanking round the left side of the room and disposing of his last opponent, found himself facing the drow. It was unclear if he made some motion to entice them or that they felt threatened by his presence, maybe it some capricious streak of cruelty that drove the drow, but they chose that moment to enter the fight. Argesh, the half-orc leader, had proven a durable foe, as had the remaining goblin - however even the addition of the three drow to their side, proved too little to turn the fight back in their favour. Seeing the way fo the fight, the drow used dark powers to obscure the sight of the party and when they were able to fully see the chamber again, one of the drow was missing and the left most door was open.

Argesh did not hold out for much longer as the perty grouped against him; falling to the ground, he growled a lst few words before passing:
"The Lady Luvia will know of this, all is by her design and I'm the least of what you will have to face from her."
Although the drow leader proved a tough competent adversary, the party did clear the chamber in short order and then quickly used the open door to try to catch the last drow. Finding an ascending stairwell, they raced up and came to a blank wall - the rogue determined it to be a concealed door and found the opening mechanism. It led onto the street which surrounded the City of the Dead, it was by now late in the night and the drow was no where to be seen, even in the quiet streets of the area.