Waythe continued to send impatient thoughts to Kahru as the group moved southward, down a long wide hallway. They came to a T, where to the right (westward) was a large door from which came the loud clang of a hammer on an anvil. There was no mistaking it.
To the left (eastward), the hallway sloped downward until it came to what might once have been its end, but was now a large hole that led to natural caverns, dark and mysterious. For a moment, it seemed as if Utharn meant to go that way. Instead, he thought better of it and ducked through a set of double doors on the south side of the T.
Inside was a room that looked like it had once been a crypt, but was now something of a worker's barracks. Straw mats were rolled on the stone slabs that may have once held sarcophagi. Several had resting orcs; a few had resting dwarves. All were overseen by two half-ogres wearing heavy armour and holding axes.
Utharn held up a hand when the half-ogres (orogs, really - their other parentage was orc) challenged him, and they backed down. He led the group through, telling the orogs,
::Ready the dwarves. They are to be freed when I return.::
One of the dwarves understood giant, and he sat up. Upon seeing Gimlak, he began to nudge the other. They appeared to want to cheer or call out, but they dared not. Instead, they nodded to him respectfully. They knew him (they were distant cousins) and he recognized them, though they had been through an ordeal.
::Come; there are more." Utharn told Gimlak and the others, ::
We will return for these.::
At the back of the crypt, there was a rubble-strewn hole that led downward and further south. Utharn barely fit though it, and he knocked more rubble from the walls as he squeezed downward. In a series of tunnels, they encountered more orc and dwarf laborers, guarded by more orogs. A total of five dwarves and eight orcs, guarded by four orogs.
Eventually they attracted the attention of a pair of stone giants. Utharn made a waving gesture and they nodded to him.
::I am sorry to interrupt your excavation, but Laerthar has agreed to allow the dwarves to rejoin their kin. The hill giant chief is dead; as are many others. Things are changing quickly here. You will have to be satisfied with this situation, without resistance or delay.::
The giants did not object, though they could not mask their annoyance and eyed the small crowd of "smalls" gathered behind the assistant emissary with open disdain.
::Release the dwarves!:: they demanded of the orogs.
The orcs roared in objection to the injustice of the situation.
