You send a Captivate light down into the pit, watching it descend until it's too far to be visible. It continues descending, and then finally stops.

500 meters, about.

ELE1: "That's where the Ensi came from, right? Bet you a gold someone's being sent down there later to investigate."

KIN2: "Keep your gold, not making a bet I know I'm losing."



________________________________________



A female voice, maybe a chirop, shouts back.

???: "We're here! We had a situation earlier, but we're safe right now. How does it look out there?"



________________________________________


A female voice on the other side, maybe human.

???: "Anyone alive in there? The envoys of Vranhal are at your door!"

Guard: "We're here! We had a situation earlier, but we're safe right now. How does it look out there?"



________________________________________


Faren-Wuust: "Feel free to start whenever, we'll be ready. You deserve a bit of rest."

ELE1: "Could be useful information down there, recorded on ordinary materials. They had the Ensi contained, right? They would be expecting corruption. Record how they captured it in the first place, its weaknesses, things like that."

KIN1: "We'll find out later, let's go."

Your team continues on, soon reaching Vandolf and Monk at the edge of the forest.

ELE2: "Take the path and risk running into someone, or trudge through the forest?"



________________________________________


???: "Wait, how do I know you're actually from Vranhal?"

Amelia: "I can burstcast this door down, if you want."

???: "Um, no, I'll just, open up."

A few seconds pass before the double doors start sliding into the wall with a faint sound of precision gears driving the retraction mechanisms.

You see two chirop standing in the dark, and then an armored chirop walks into view to greet you.

Armored Chirop: "Thank goodness you're the real deal.

We don't have a central command at the moment, we've split command between several squad leaders. I guess I'll get some to meet with you. Come on in, don't want to leave the door open."



________________________________________


You let the visions of Grant and the temple fade into black, drifting off into a deeper sleep.

Tuhota: "I get some steaks too, right!?"

Horoma: "Only if you shut up, or I'll turn yours to cinders"

Horoma is in her doll form, flipping steaks on a metal cooking grate over a fire.

The sun is bright, and a cool wind gently blows across the tall, lush grass. Your party members are running around, engaged in mock combat or messing around experimenting with magic.


Miimas: "What the HELL Kyeltziv!?"

You look at the ground in front of you, Tuhota writhing in pain in the grass. A giant messy cut tears itself wider in her chest, spilling blood as she ineffectively tries to push herself away from you.



________________________________________


You pick the closest building to start with. The door is locked, so you ram your armored shoulder into it, breaking whatever was keeping it locked, as well as busting the hinges. There feels like there's something behind it, so you pull the door outward and rest it against the building.

Stepping inside, your light reveals a family of chirop, most of them huddled in a corner. The only one standing is in front of them, aiming a palm at you.

>Walk in. Make note of how the door mechanism is activated, in case I have to make a quick escape. Size up the soldier and the other two.

>As soon as the armorchirop fetches someone who seems to be in charge, engage questioning monologue. In fact, grab them by the shoulder, look them in the eye and lower my voice.

"You. What I am about to tell you impacts the safety of Vranhal and her people, as well as that of everyone in this cave. Do NOT disclose it to civilians. We do not need a mass panic."

>Move whoever it is aside, hopefully out of earshot of the others.

"Several hours ago, we lost communications with both shelters and the city. Scouting indicates the area is under attack by a group of witch-like entities, and at least one wing of this facility has been compromised. Standard weaponry has proven ineffective against the threat, and you might need to consider relocating to safer ground.

I need to know - no, Vranhal needs to know- how many civilians are being kept here, what is the strength of your forces, and if there are any alternate exits to these tunnels. In fact, we need the layout of the entire cave system. Lord Elizabeth Hopluit is willing to mobilize the entire military might of our city-state in defense of the citizens of Magusalto, but we WILL need your cooperation. Is that clear?"

/bluff

Your group enters the forest, travelling cautiously in the dark. The telepaths provide vision with some sort of telepathic overlay, not sure how they're actually getting the information though.

The team makes decent progress despite the difficulties of moving through the dense plant growth, until a halt command is given.

SAN: Contact. Single unit, anti-magic present.

ELE1: Got a visual, unknown creature.

The creature appears in everyone's vision, standing some distance ahead among the trees and shrubbery. A humanoid roughly twice the height of a person, wearing black glassy armor with a large grey cloak on top. Its head looks like a crystalline structure with a smooth face, two slits for eyes, and three short horns jutting out the back of its head.

KIN1: Medium-order witch, unknown variant. Expect anything.



________________________________________


After walking in, you watch the armored chirop walk off into a side passage in the wall of the cavern. A few seconds later and the doors begin sliding shut - must be a control system in there. The guard then heads to fetch someone in command while the two civilians head back towards the massive town that fills most of the cavern.

The guard soon returns with another chirop, this one in a black and white cloak.


The chirop takes a couple seconds to process everything.

Cloaked Chirop: "Each shelter is supposed to contain roughly one hundred twenty thousand civilians each, about twenty thousand in this section. Hastae units in this section approximately a hundred, total there should be roughly two thousand assuming zero casualties. We have three other exits in this section.

What else do you need to know?"



________________________________________


A horrible tearing sound, and a bloody brass catbell is in your hand. Night falls upon the land and none of your friends are in sight.

Your eyes are glued to the bell as it rings in a cacophony of off-key notes, blending them into distorted screaming. White ribbons sprout from the bell, wrapping around you.