The wounded adventurers dove for cover as the trowlets on the catwalk prepared to open fire. But before they could do so, a potion grenade hit the trowlets’ left flank, killing several of them and collapsing that part of the catwalk. As the survivors tried to flee, a second explosion took out the other side, and the entire section collapsed to the floor, sending the whole bunch with it.
More trowlets came through the doors on the ground floor, these better equipped than the first group and wearing all black. They barked orders at the fallen. When one of the those in red and green stood up to resist, a giant figure that had been under a concealment spell revealed himself, picked up the defiant trowlet, and hit him with a rapid succession of finger strikes that left him paralyzed. The trowlet mage that had been hanging off the giant figure’s back dropped to the ground, and the black-clad trowlets proceeded to handcuff the survivors from the red and green group.
The hulking figure turned, and the adventurers recognized him as a trowlord, three meters tall and bristling with muscles. He carried an oversized daikatana on his back.
“Who are these people?” asked Sarah.
“I don’t know,” said Memlen, “but they’ve got to be from Clan Umbrunnuluch. Those guys are secretive, even for trow.”
“Their leader is a priest of Hun Lao,” said Anthony. “Several of the soldiers too.”
“They’re carrying swords,” said Sarah.
“Yes. They follow him in the aspect of Hun Lao of the Shadows. Skill with melee weapons is part of their faith.”
“And they have the same crazy martial arts skills?” said Thinneus. Anthony nodded.
The trowlord walked slowly toward the adventurers, his black outfit blending in with the darkness. “We’re representatives of the Conclave. Stand up and present yourselves.” There wasn’t a trace of an accent. The surface-worlders had seen trowlords before on the screen, and they’d heard the legends that trowlords had clawed their way back from the grave to seize destiny by the horns. But seeing one in person was a whole new experience. The massive trow’s stance and demeanor showed that he was in complete command of the situation and knew it.
Sarah laid down her machine gun and came out with her hands up, but only after motioning to the rest of her team to hold position. “What do you want?” she asked.
The trowlord’s team finished capturing their opponents and moved to position just in case a fight broke out with the adventurers. Their leader said, “We heard rumors of an adventuring guild coming down here with nefarious purposes, and we came here to investigate.”
Sarah was indignant. “This was an official guild quest. There’s nothing nefarious about it!”
Memlen whispered, “He means the Strigoli family.”
The trowlord’s bat ears must have picked up the statement because he said, “Indeed. Unlike you, they filed an action plan and contacted a liaison officer before coming down here. When they shoved him in a storage locker, he called us. Then one of our contacts told us about a suspected cell of the Trow Liberation Front gearing up for a fight, I presume with your team, and we got here as fast as we could.” He gestured at the captured trowlets. “Just in time, it appears.”
Sarah cocked her head. “You represent the Conclave? What department are you with?”
The trowlord smiled. “That’s a very good question. Regrettably, I have a busy schedule, and don’t have time to go into extraneous minutia. Now, we can have a friendly discussion about what happened here, or we can have an unfriendly one. Which will it be?”
Sarah looked at Memlen. “Are these guys legit?”
Memlen shrugged. “‘Legit’ loses a lot of its meaning down here. I doubt you’ll find them on any official organization chart, but I think they actually do work for the Conclave. So, yeah, they’re something resembling real authorities. If we resist, even if we win, we’re criminals.”
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“And we’re not in a position to win,” said Anthony. “We’ve got no choice.” Memlen nodded and they stepped out from behind cover, hands empty, with Thinneus following close behind, even though he was shaking from fear.
“Good,” said the trowlord. “Now I want your version of events. And my associate here would like to confer with one of your prisoners.”
Sarah gave a quick recap of their journey down here, mentioning but downplaying Anthony’s confrontation with the refugees, before segueing into the run-in with the Strigoli family and emphasizing how her team had tried for a peaceful resolution. As she spoke, the trowlet mage made some glyph hand signs and placed his hands on the gnome’s head crystals with a flash of blue light. The way the crystals flashed in response, it was obviously some kind of mind-reading spell. After Sarah finished her explanation, the trowlord looked at his mage and the mage responded by sending a bit of blue magic at his boss. Memlen whispered “Telepathy spell.”
The trowlord considered, then spoke. “Well, it seems you’re telling the truth. There’s a few minor things we could charge you with, but that’s more paperwork than I want to deal with. I think we can come to an arrangement.” Everyone relaxed. “The one thing is,” the trowlord continued, “You won’t be able to take these Wondercakes with you.”
“That’s outrageous,” Memlen growled.
“These belong to the plaintiffs in the Wondertreats lawsuit,” said Anthony. “The ones who never got their payout after the bankruptcy.”
The trowlord said, “And you want your cut.”
“Of course we do,” said Anthony. “We came down here, risked our lives, expended time, blood, and resources, only to be sent away with nothing. ‘The lioness lets no one steal her kill.’”
“Yes,” said the trowlord, “But unfortunately, this presents a number of difficulties. The Conclave has had great success in discouraging treasure hunters from coming down here in search of the Wondertrove. But you threaten to undo a decade of work by reviving that legend. The tunnels will flood with fools too ignorant to believe that there aren’t more cakes to be found.”
“That’s a concern,” said Sarah. “But I think we can still work something out.”
Thinneus breathed sharply. “My spirit is shot from all the magic I’ve been working. I need something to feel better.” He spotted a wondercake in the darkness, opened the package, and popped it into his mouth. And then he grimaced the second he tasted it. Holding up his flashlight, he took a closer look at the wrapper. It read, “Diet Wondercakes. Whole wheat flour! Sugar free! No alchemical flavor enhancers!!!” Thinneus spat the rest out in disgust. “Who would eat this?” he asked.
“People who are starving,” said the trowlord. “Refugees from Clan Simistil who have few other options.”
“So if we turn over the Wondertrove to our client, we leave the refugees without food?” said Sarah. “Maybe we can arrange a trade, sell these on the surface in exchange for some better food for the refugees?”
Thinneus drank from a bottle of water as he tried to get the residue out of his mouth. “Once someone tastes one of these I doubt we’ll get more than half a bag of rice chips for the whole lot.”
“They’re that bad?” asked Anthony. Thinneus handed him one and he sniffed it and handed it back.
The trowlord spoke up. “I think it’d be best if we left the Wondertrove here, the part that didn’t get blown up, that is. Yes, I know it technically belongs to someone else, but as you yourself said, it’s not even worth transporting to the surface. I think it would be best for all involved if we simply keep this whole affair quiet.”
Anthony shook his head. “What about our client? We took a job, and to betray him like this is a violation of business ethics.”
Memlen scoffed. “Him? Don’t you think it’s a bit weird that the Strigoli family just happened to show up within minutes of our arrival time?”
Anthony nodded. “I did. Oh! He wasn’t satisfied with our arrangement. As soon as we updated him on our progress, he must have told the Strigoli Family that we’d located the trove and tried to get a better deal out of them. How did I miss that?”
Sarah looked at the trowlord. “So we just call it even. You let us go and we pretend we never found the Wondertrove?”
“It depends on what you mean by ‘us’,” said the trowlord. “The four of you are free to leave. Your prisoners, however, will remain with me. Their endeavors were more eventful than yours as they approached, and between that and initiating a firefight, I can’t let them leave.”
“What happens to them?” asked Sarah.
“Again, trivial details that I lack the time to discuss. However, I can offer each of you a five thousand lucre reimbursement fee for the purchase of your body cameras. They contain evidence that will be crucial in our investigation.” No one mentioned that this was more than ten times the value of their cameras, that none of the black-clad trow seemed to be the type that were overly concerned with evidence, and that this was obviously a payment of hush money. No one also brought up the fact that this was the best deal that the adventurers were likely to get, and the alternative was a heroic last stand that would be as brief as it was lethal. The weight of the many things that were left unsaid hung in the air like a thick cloud.
Sarah considered. “I don’t like it, but throw in some medical attention and we’ll take it.”
Anthony chimed in, “Also, the Strigoli gear. They don’t need it anymore, and it’s sized for humans.”
The trowlord nodded and motioned to several of his team. One of them was a medic, and he began treating Anthony with alchemy. Another was a priest of Hun Lao, and with a few rapid acupressure strikes, he sent healing energies coursing through Memlen’s body. A third soldier offered Sarah and Thinneus each a healing potion, and they accepted gratefully.
They gathered up what spoils they could from the battlefield, then began to head back the way they came.
The trowlord called out to them, “Wait. We’ve got a transport that can take you back down the A24 tunnel. It’s faster.”
“I thought the A24 was collapsed,” said Thinneus.
“It was supposed to appear that way,” said the trowlord. “We wanted to keep this area cordoned off. Apparently, our efforts weren’t sufficient to the task.”
The adventurers sighed and hopped in a car that took them back to their van which in turn took them back to the sunshine of the surface world.