'You're telling me that was an act?' Joel demanded with disbelief. 'What about the way you were transformed?'
'Well, that I can't help,' Jas admitted.
'You really had me worried,' Joel said.
'Sorry,' Jas said.
There was an awkward silence as the bard stared at Jas, trying to discern if she was telling the truth about her earlier behavior.
'So what's down there?' Emilo asked as he peered down into the darkness of the tower.
Joel put the question of Jas's sanity aside for now. 'I didn't stop to look into any of the rooms in the upper stories,' he explained. 'The first floor was interesting enough.' The bard described what he'd seen in Xvim's throne room and related everything he'd learned from Ratagar Perivalious.
'Xvim didn't even come back to save his followers from Beshaba?' Emilo asked, wide-eyed with astonishment.
'It's not like he really cares about any of them,' Jas pointed out.
Joel shook his head. 'He may not care, but he must realize that without his followers, he has no power. And not coming to their defense is a tremendous display of weakness,' Joel pointed out. 'He didn't even return when Beshaba became unconscious. It's very strange. It's possible he can't return.'
'So what now?' Jas asked.
'From what I can tell,' Joel said, 'all Xvim's priests and followers are cringing in the temple, trying to keep away from Beshaba's bad luck. I noticed one exception. There was a human at the gate. The priests don't dare leave the fortress's only access in the hands of yugoloth mercenaries. Xvim doesn't trust anyone or anything, but his priests preach that humans are the chosen people. My bet is there's a human priest at the gate. He could be fanatically loyal, or he could be dying to leave his post so he can cower in the temple with his fellow priests. I'm going to change my shape into another priest and check him out.'
'What about Emilo and me?' Jas asked.
'Well, I thought the pair of you could just run around causing trouble… without getting caught, of course. One of the priests told me the yugoloths live in caverns in the cliff wall, but the lava from the mount makes it too dangerous there for humans. I saw several yugoloths coming and going from the bastion walls. Concentrate your sabotage there. Take advantage of any opportunities that present themselves. Scatter Walinda's false gemstones, steal or destroy any weapons or magic you can. When you're done, fly back up here and hide. I'll signal you with the finder's stone when I'm finished at the gate.'
Joel used another scroll to change his shape back to human form, creating the illusion of a shaved head and pierced lip and the robes of a hatemaster. In a superficial way, he now resembled Hatemaster Morr.
Joel took back the finder's stone from Emilo. He slid the stone into his shirt with a visible sense of relief. Then Jas flew the bard down to the bastion wall, as near to the gate as she dared to go. She landed in the shadows of the parapet. The eternal darkness of Gehenna, lit only by lava and torchlight, made sneaking around the fortress possible, especially since no one suspected the adventurers were roaming around unconstrained. The wall adjacent to the gate, though, was better lit.
As Joel made his way toward the gate, Jas returned for Emilo. Together she and the kender slipped into a window in the inner bastion wall that looked out over the courtyard. Then they began exploring.
Although the yugoloths lived in the caverns in the cliff, Jas and Emilo discovered several great mess halls on the ground floor of the structure built between the bastion walls. Most of the tables and benches were suited to the size of the giant cricket-shaped yugoloths, but there were smaller accommodations as well, either for humans or for the lobster-shaped yugoloths.
'This must be the mess hall,' Emilo said.
'I thought Joel said the yugoloths live in the caverns in the cliff,' Jas murmured. 'Why would their mess halls be near the wall?'
'Maybe it's like oats and horses,' Emilo suggested. The food brings the yugoloths in from the cliff like oats bring horses to the stables. Then, after they've eaten, Xvim's men put them to work.'
Jas nodded. It made sense. The yugoloths were mercenaries, They weren't going to assemble for work for the love of Xvim; they had to be bribed.
They discovered one mess hall where four human priests, acolytes by the look of their robes, were scooping some white gelatinous porridge into giant bowls and setting them out on the table. The priests finished serving and moved on to the next mess hall.
'This looks like a good place to start,' Jas suggested.
An indescribable stench rose from the putrid white globs in the bowls.
'That stuff would send any decent horse running back to the pasture,' Jas declared.
Emilo scampered down the benches alongside the yugoloths' mess tables as Jas kept watch from the doorway. He sowed the tables with Walinda's phony gems at random intervals. Occasionally he'd drop a gem into a bowl. Some yugoloths would be rewarded at dinner, while others would go wanting.
Somewhere nearby someone rang a gong four times.
'They're coming,' Jas hissed, hurrying to one of the narrow windows that looked out over the courtyard. Emilo hopped down from a bench and hurried after her. Jas squeezed through the window and perched on the window's keystone while the kender watched from the windowsill.
It was only a matter of minutes before discord erupted as the large yugoloths and their shorter commanders set to squabbling over the gemstones. Within another few minutes, there was all-out warfare in the mess hall.
Jas scooped up the kender and moved on. They planted the seeds of discontent in two more mess halls before they ran out of gems. Then they sneaked in through a window of the wall's upper level.
In a locked room, opened handily by Emilo, the pair discovered an arsenal of missile weaponry: arrows, crossbows, and spears. The same room was lined with arrow slits along the outer wall of the bastion.
Emilo poked an arrow out a window slit. There was no invisible barrier to stop it, but when the kender tried to draw the arrow back inside, the arrow stuck in midair. 'It's a one-way barrier,' he noted. 'We could push everything out the windows.'
Jas shook her head. 'The yugoloths stationed atop the wall are likely to hear the clatter. We have to find someplace- Hello. What have we here?' The winged woman held up a strange-looking device Emilo had never seen before. It looked like a short hollow wand with a wooden handle.
'What is it?' Emilo asked.
'An arquebus. It's a weapon that uses smoke powder,' Jas explained. With her sword, she began prying the lid off the small barrel next to which she'd found the arquebus. 'Remember that stuff I mentioned before? The stuff that causes explosions?' Jas yanked the lid off the barrel to reveal a fine silver and black powder.
'Is that smoke powder?' Emilo asked, stepping closer and sniffing. 'Ew. I once knew a gnome that smelled like that.'
'Stay back with that torch,' Jas ordered the kender. 'Gods, if only Arandes was alive to see this,' she murmured as she stirred her fingers gently through the powder that filled the barrel. 'He was a gif,' she explained to Emilo. 'Gif measure their honor in part by how much smoke powder they possess.'
'Is that a lot of smoke powder?' Emilo asked.
'Oh, yes,' Jas replied, pressing the lid back onto the small barrel. 'I wonder if there's any more around…'
ACT THREE SCENE 8
Joel drew out a torch from his belt and lit it from another torch burning in a sconce on the parapet. If the giant yugoloths could see in the dark, they would spot him easily. He might as well appear as if he had every right to be on the wall. He strode with purpose along the road between the two walls in the direction of the gate.
Giant yugoloths milled about everywhere atop the walls. Some stared outward from the bastion, but most leaned along the inner wall, watching their fellows drilling in the courtyard below. Bored out of their minds, Joel
