"Yes," Talon told her
    "Get me down!"
    He got the keys out.
    "Samantha, they're here!" the dwarf hissed.
    "Why are you whispering? Everyone here gibbers madly," a cross voice replied from down the hall. "What the--oh, they're here," she whispered.
    "I hope there's no other guards here?" I asked the dwarf.
    "Did you already kill that guy down there?"
    "Yes."
    "That's it. People come through every once in a while, so you'd better get us down right quick."
    We freed the dwarf and the woman. They weren't in such bad shape as the rest of the prisoners, but they didn't look all that good either.
    "I can't believe that worked. That someone actually came here and rescued us," the dwarf said. "I thought this was a suicide mission."
    "Hey, we're good," Talon shrugged
    "I'm Telek, that's Samantha. I don't suppose either one of you has any healing magic?"
    "Why, yes," I acknowledged.
    "Have you killed everybody else in the building?"
    We explained that we were starting from the top.
    "Oh."
    "The other half of our party is starting at the bottom," I added.
    Her eyes widened. "You split up? Man, you guys are brave."
    I spent a couple of charges from my staff getting the two of them in slightly better shape; their wounds were healed, but they would still suffer a bit from lack of food and water. Phoenix Talon returned to the Carnifex's chamber and picked up a few axes for Telek.
    "I have to warn you, my gifts run more toward divination," Samantha informed us.
    "That's what he's for," I jerked my head at Talon.
    "We need you to get in contact with the old man so they know to send the forces in," he told her.
    "Are we convinced that we'll have this cleared out? Do you want me to send the message now, or want me to wait? She's already done her sweep through for tonight."
    "We might want to wait until we actually have the place secured," I allowed.
    "I guess so," Talon agreed. "How did you get up here from the lower level?"
    "We got captured the woods outside. When I woke up, I was here. Neither one of us really know any point up or down from this point. They haven't bothered to question us--they don't care."
    "They could have strapped them on that bird for all we know," I shrugged.
    "So we're going to have to run past the raven." There was another door on that side of the rope bridge; perhaps we could find access to the rest of the tree there.
    "There are more gnolls, more important ones, up that way," Samantha pointed. "They walk up around. The slaves are down there, but the important people are higher up."
    "Well then." I glanced at Talon.
    
    Scott gave things a few more minutes to quiet down. The wolf amused itself by waiting until a slave had almost fallen asleep, then padding silently up and growling in his ear.
    Time to begin the distraction.
    Scott drifted over the wolf's head as mist, then returned to a more solid form and dropped on him. He lashed out a whip-like tendril of quicksilver in a blow that knocked the gnoll off his feet, then did the same to the wolf, which expired messily.
    The gnoll yelled, scrambled to his feet, and hurled his battleaxe at Scott. It did no damage of course; Scott's substance can only be touched by magic weapons.
    "HELP!"
    It was the last thing he ever said. Scott removed the keys from the corpse's belt and tossed them to the most coherent-looking prisoner.
    "Good evening, gentlemen. Here are your keys. By the way the armory, which is just up the top and turn to the left, is unlocked and waiting for you."
    He went to the door and misted under it.
    "A ghost just saved our lives...."
    "Not yet, we still have to get out of here!"
    A flurry of unlocking began.
    "Maybe we should stay...."
    "Shut up!"
    Scott began working his way back up the ramp until it forked, one way leading back the way he had come, the other continuing up. He went the latter way, until the passage opened up to his right and he saw a door. There was another door to his left, and he could hear someone coming behind him. A gnoll with a short bow ready stepped out into the corridor.
    "Bertram? Did you just yell for help?" Pause. "Respond, please!"
    "Bertram?" Scott repeated, appalled. The arrow went through his misty form. A second followed it. He nabbed the gnoll with a long grab that put him on the ground; the gnoll was yelling, which was only to be expected, and dropped the bow in favor of drawing an axe and getting back to his feet. Gretchen's gnoll guards tended to be armed with magical weapons. Scott moved forward and knocked him over again. The gnoll was starting to look rather battered. Scott hit him again.
    This time when he got up he backed away, turning the corner back up onto the ramp he had come down originally, and still yelling at the top of his lungs. "Intruder! Help!"
    Alarm bells started ringing. Ah good. This should count as a distraction. He moved to follow, carefully of course.
    
    We heard alarm bells ringing.
    "You said the other gnolls were up there?" Talon asked.
    Telek nodded. "Yeah, the important.... how'd the alarm get set off, I thought...?" Her eyes widened. "Your man downstairs has been captured."
    "I doubt that very much," I replied comfortably.
    "Let's not assume that until we see it," Talon agreed. "How many gnolls are up there?"
    "Ten, maybe?"
    "And they're all of equal stature to the one...?"
    "No, the leaders are up there."
    "So they're tougher?"
    "Yeah!"
    "Don't look like that at me, young lady."
    "Sorry."
    "But they have to come down this way..." He looked for a way to set an ambush.
    "If we keep coming up this way, if they have another way down other than the way we came in, we can find out what it is, because they'll be going down to deal with the problem. Yes?" I suggested.
    "True, but I figured they were going to come past us."
    "There's no way down past us," I reminded him. "Unless they want to go across the bridge."
    "That's what I'm figuring is the only way down."
    "Then we'll meet them on the way down. But if there's another way that might be faster...."
    "Right," he said impatiently. "But if we're going to meet them on the way down we're going to do that within the next minute or so, and we might want to make defensive preparations."
    "Like what?"
    "Like hiding and ambushing them as they run past!"
    "If you want to, we can go back into his room."
    His eyes brightened as he thought of something. "Or if there's a place we can hide, wait until they run past, follow them out, wait until they're out on the rope bridge...."
    "And cut the rope?" Telek finished. "Then how are we going to get down?"
    "Actually, we can arrange that, don't worry."
    "We have ways of dealing with these problems," I assured her.
    "So we need to hide."
    We doubled back to the carnifex's room and waited in silence to see if anyone passed. A few moments later there were footsteps of three people running past. One of them stopped, banged on the door.
    "If you're not down there already I'm going to skin your hide!" the gnoll yelled, and kept going.
    Talon didn't think the room's usual occupant would mind, in his current condition. He opened the door and slipped out after them, motioning for the rest of us to wait as he sprinted silently after them.
    "We're going to give him a couple seconds," I told them, "because he's very quiet, and then we're going to sneak out after him."
    "Should we stay here?" Telek asked. "Defend the position?" It was clear that they did not want to be separated from us; they were no doubt very good, but they were in over their heads in this adventure.
    "No, you come with me. They won't hear us over the noise."
    We stepped out into the corridor. Ahead, one of the gnolls pulled out a key and unlocked the door. One of the others had a large pouch on his belt. The third paused and glanced back briefly, looked right past Phoenix Talon--who flattened himself to the wall like another prisoner--then continued on. Talon darted in to catch the door before it could lock again, waited for the rest of us to catch up, and then we all ventured onto the branch.
    The bird was on its nest, busily consuming the giant rat the gnoll had thrown it from its pouch. The three gnolls--two males and a female--were on the bridge, about forty feet out. Phoenix Talon dashed over to the anchors, far faster than the rest of us even when moving silently.
    The last one in line glanced back, didn't see Talon at all, but fastened on the rest of us. "Who're you?!" The other two turned, of course.
    "Oops," Telek murmured. She ran over toward Talon to help with cutting the ropes. Samantha made a half-hearted grab for the dwarf, hoping for some protection, and ducked back inside the door; it was unlikely that divining would be much use to us under the circumstances. Telek swung, but her axe bounced off the taut cables.
    A gnoll grabbed his bow and fired at me.
    Ouch.
    The other two began waving their hands and chanting.
    "Fuck," I observed.
    A small wolf materialized beside Telek, who jumped back to avoid being tripped and falling to her death while the gnoll woman, still chanting, began walking toward us.
    Phoenix Talon called one of his magical items into play, creating a searing light focused on the bridge cables, cutting both top and bottom ropes on that side.
    The bitch gnoll grabbed hold of a solid cable and kept her feet on the steady side of the bridge, having finally noticed Talon's presence. The one behind her lost his footing and grabbed on with both hands to the cut rope, dangling precariously. The archer was unaffected, being farthest away.
    I pulled out my sling; it doesn't do much, but I was only hoping to keep the gnoll bitch off balance while not using up my stock of spells. She staggered but kept her grip.
    
    Meanwhile, at the bottom of the tree....
    Scott rounded the corner. Down the way, the gnoll he had just bashed about was ringing the alarm. Much closer, he found a second gnoll waiting for him, and indeed leaping out and taking a couple of swings at him, to no effect.
    Scott returned the courtesy and sent the gnoll staggering back, but still on his feet. He heard the slaves heading up the corridor toward the armory; they stopped when they saw Scott in the midst of his fight. A scream came from the other direction as a third gnoll with an axe charged at him, summoned by the commotion. This, too, was ineffective. Scott gave the slaves a jaunty wave.
    "The slaves are escaping, too!" one of the gnolls yelled.
    

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