“Come here for a second. I’d like to test something.” Armand asked, “Hold out your hand please?” I did so and he very swiftly dragged a blade across it 3 times. It was the surprise that got me more than anything as I yanked my arm back.

“What the hell!” Deacon said.

“Look at your hand, I bet there is not a scratch on it.” Armand replied. Deacon did so and there was no blood or even a thin white line. “I think this is a good thing. I don’t think normal weapons can hurt you. Be warned that there are a lot of weapons and an infinite number of ways to die in this world, so this isn’t a license to be careless. You’ve seen very little of this world so far.” He said. I just stared at my hand in awe.

“I doubt anything down here could really hurt you but be careful. This will come in handy if we get into trouble. At least I won’t have to worry about you bleeding out while I’m stabbing something else. I’m concerned about the magic issue though. We don’t have another way to heal someone other than a spell. I suppose a potion will work but we are fresh out of them. I would recommend you looking into alchemy.” Armand explained.

“What about cooking?”Deacon asked, “I was a decent cook back in… a past life.”

“There are some cooks who claim to be able to buff people with a good meal. None around here though.” He replied. He also pointed out that I’ve been carrying a small pouch of gold and a technique manual since we left the room. Armand gave Deacon a spare satchel so he could free up his hands. Deacon spent the rest of our watch peering into the darkness and contemplating how he got here and what he should do next.

It was like this for a while, Typhus would take the lead followed by Elle with Armand and Deacon taking the rear. Typhus would occasionally disarm a trap and assure us we were headed up. The tunnel started to widen shortly revealing a large cavern with rudimentary structures. Typhus called a halt. There was a smattering of clay huts around a central pit with a medium sized cage hanging over it. Deacon couldn’t see the bottom of the pit from where they were, but Deacon could see a tunnel on the far side of the cavern with what looks like daylight shinning through.

“There’s a way out.” Deacon said. Typhus put his finger to his mouth then used that same finger to point to the settlement. Then Armand pointed to his eyes then to the cage. Deacon took a closer look at the cage and understood what he meant. Sticking out of the cage was a bunch of hands, at least twenty to thirty sets of them. Deacon then began to follow the path of the arm holding the cage. Maybe he could get them down. Then what? Deacon was no magic locksmith. Obviously, Typhus could get the door open. Something was still bothering him. The cage isn’t made of bone or twigs. It looks like forged metal. How did it get here?

Armand set a plan into motion that Deacon dubbed, the devils gambit. Typhus and Deacon will head around to the cage arm while Armand and Elle cause a commotion here. This way there won’t be as much interference once the captives get loose. . He also believes the captives are from the village. Typhus tells Deacon to stay low and hug the walls. They start to see some activity from one of the huts and he calls a halt. A large Kobold with a head dress steps out along side a man in chain armor and a glowing gem on his upper left pectoral area. Deacon does the eye pointy thing at Typhus. The Kobold bows slightly to the man and then the man starts to walk toward the exit of the cave. We are a good 30 yards away behind a rock but can tell in the next few minutes that man will be outside. Deacon looks over at Typhus only to see a deep murderous scowl on his face as he watches the Iron Man wannabe leave.

Soon after another kobold comes around the rock we are hiding behind and Typhus has no choice but to grab it and slit its throat.

“If I hadn’t, he would have seen us and alerted the whole damn cavern.” Typhus responds to Deacons gasp. He does the finger to the lips sign and we slink deeper into position. Once we are about 10 yards from the mechanism, Typhus pulls out a small mirror and starts to tilt in the direction we came. That’s the signal, well what happens next was pretty low key. Elle casts a growing vine spell to loosen some rock above one of the many tunnel entrances to force a collapse. About twenty or so lizard men run up the slope to investigate the noise. The first two take an arrow to the head for their trouble from the right. As the others dive to the ground, Armand wades into them lunging and executing what could only be some kind of special move that dispatches 3 at a time. Jolted from his slack jawed awe, Typhus drags Deacon over to the crane mechanism while more kobolds are checking what the ruckus is on the opposite side. Deacon gave it a good once over to make sure he was not about to drop the cage into the pit which is much larger than originally thought. Ok looks like there is a release lever, a swing lever that moves horizontal, and a hand crack wheel. Piece of cake. He cranks the wheel and the cage slowly lowers. Stopping doing that immediately, he didn’t just pull the release lever. Deacon used the swing lever to move the cage over solid ground. Typhus taps him on the shoulder two times to indicate a need to hurry based on our brief signal conversation earlier. Deacon starts cranking again but of course that’s when they are discovered. Three taps on the shoulder to let him know he’ll buy some time. Guess he'll trust he’s not abandoning him with the bag of gems he has.