With Ammun quietly observing and occasionally offering ideas, Jani deciphered the duergar battle plans, revealing three locations of attack: The district they had just defended, the royal palace, and the barracks. Just then, First Hammer Rosa Rustblade, leader of the militia, burst into the room, eager to consult with Ammun. The palace had just been attacked, and the king had been captured and carried off. Upon learning that the battle plans revealed her own base of operations as the third target, she rushed off to defend it. Ammun provided the Rovers with a potion that might protect two of them from the duergars’ mind control magic before they too left The Infirmary.
Initially inclined to follow the king’s captors as quickly as possible so that they would not get too far ahead, their exhaustion from the day’s battles and the possibility of traps led them to staying one night in town to recover. During the evening, Sven and Stinger investigated the palace, and the next morning they revealed what they had learned. The attackers had burrowed into the palace silently, without the usual noises associated with digging, so the guards were taken completely by surprise. The tunnel was collapsed behind them, making pursuit via that route difficult or impossible. Second Hammer Fodoubella Noblebreaker was in charge of the rescue efforts and was visibly agitated. Finally, one duergar was in the dwarves’ custody; they presented themselves as a defector willing to help, but the dwarves were understandably distrustful.