"From what I've just observed…," Aoko whispered to her teammates.
"Once we free the gnome slaves and spark a rebellion, the duergar are more likely to just look out for themselves."
"You mean they're a disorganized rabble?" Edgin mused.
"Something like that," Aoko nodded. "Most of these duergar were hired by the drow. They might not know how to operate the mithril forge, but they're master smiths—important labor, either way."
"Why don't the drow just enslave the duergar too?" Holga asked, puzzled.
"It's not worth it," Xenk explained. "Duergar earned their status in the Underdark; they're the biggest arms dealers below ground. They may skirmish with the drow, but there's never been all-out war."
"Whatever their attitude, let's just rescue the gnomes in this building first," Edgin said, peeking through a high window.
"There are four duergar inside—no drow. I'll distract them at the front. When I draw them out, you guys free the gnomes!"
Everyone agreed. There were few humans in the camp, but not none, so Edgin's presence wouldn't be too out of place.
Simon pulled out a Hither-thither staff, found a flat, hidden spot on a rock not far from the wall, and set up one end of a teleport gate.
He nodded to Edgin, who circled to the front, took out his lute, and began to sing.
"What's that noise?" one duergar frowned.
"It's a human bard singing," said another, peeking outside.
"What's a bard doing here? Only greedy human merchants come here!" said a third, baffled.
"He's not half bad, though," the fourth duergar hesitated. "Should we go listen?"
"What about the slaves?" one duergar worried.
"What, you think they'll run?" the other scoffed. "Come on, let's see what tricks that human's playing. Listening to a song won't kill us!"
All four duergar agreed, abandoning their posts to listen to Edgin's performance.
As a seasoned bard, Edgin could keep these unsophisticated duergar entertained—and distracted—for hours, as long as his stamina held.
Seeing the plan work, Aoko gave Simon a nod. Simon used the Hither-thither staff to project the other end of the gate into the corner of the slave room, startling a gnome adjusting the forge.
Aoko dove in first, quickly covering the startled gnome's mouth and urging her to be quiet with a finger to her lips.
She noticed an anti-magic cuff on the gnome's wrist—this was a spellcaster!
Aoko examined the runes on the cuff. It was simple enough that, with her Intelligence of 26, she could remove it in no time.
Next came Xenk and Holga, while Simon stayed outside the portal as backup, and Doric turned into a bat to keep watch from above.
Aoko deciphered the runes in about three minutes and deftly removed the cuff from the female gnome's wrist.
Without a word, Xenk slashed the gnome's foot shackle, gesturing for her to escape through the portal. The clever gnome didn't waste time asking about her companions—she just dove straight in.
Aoko didn't immediately free the others. Instead, she cast a delayed, heightened [Sleep] spell, putting all four distracted duergar at the door to sleep.
Edgin stopped singing, quickly locked the door, and, joined by the others, tied up and gagged the sleeping duergar to prevent them from alerting anyone.
The gnome slaves, their eyes rekindled with hope, cooperated eagerly with Aoko's team.
Holga and Xenk cut the gnomes' shackles. Grateful tears streamed down their faces as they followed Xenk's instructions to escape through the teleportation portal.
Aoko covered the four duergar with a cloth and, once everything was tidy, left the room with her team.
"Thank you, brave warriors!" the lead female gnome said to the team. "Without you, we'd have died as slaves here."
Simon closed the portal while Aoko removed the cuffs from two more spellcasting gnomes, and the group hugged each other in relief.
"We're actually here to use the port," Aoko admitted, "but when we saw you, Sir Xenk suggested we free you."
The gnomes quickly bowed to Xenk.
"How many gnome slaves are left in the camp?" Aoko asked. "How many duergar? And drow?"
"There used to be about 90 of us in our group," the female gnome said sadly, "but now, because of overwork and accidents, only about 30 remain. There are 50 or 60 more to the south."
"Altogether, there are fewer than 200 gnomes scattered throughout the Forge of Vengeance."