rone | e&tg 50

(Was the last part confusing?)

"Little bastard got you good," grumbled Ĥavar next to me. "Let's take a look at this."

I looked at my shoulder and saw a bolt sticking out of the armor. "It doesn't hurt too bad. I think the armor stopped most of it." I knelt down.

"Yeah... didn't catch you flush. Lucky bastard." He pulled the bolt out and i tried not to complain. "Yep, bit of blood there, but not a lot. You'll live."

Kohasadi walked up to us. I petted his neck. "Thanks again, bud. Let's go inside, shall we?"

We walked through the leather curtain, and i headed for the leaf curtain when Havar said, "Where you going? Steam vent entrance is this way."

I turned to him and saw him at a door on the side of the entrance room that i hadn't seen the last time we were here. "Oh. Right." I followed him through, then i said, "Ĥavar, wait." I turned back to Kohasadi and said, "It's a narrow staircase. Do you want to wait here?" He shook his head and squeezed through the doorway.

We walked downstairs as the dimly lit hallway curved gently to the right for about a minute or so until we reached a short, flat hallway that ended in a door. Ĥavar held up a hand as he snuck up to the door and put his ear to it. After a few seconds, he straightened up, shook his head, knocked on the door and then pulled it open. The back of the room had one large window, and what looked like a stone desk covered in levers, knobs, and an abacus. I could also see a blonde dwarf woman with a pair of goggles on her forehead standing next to it, with a halfing behind her pointing a loaded crossbow at her head.

"Kortra!" exclaimed Ĥavar as he stepped towards her. "Are you—"

"Far enough, stumpy," said a voice that came from the right of the room.

"Boss, he has a friend," said the halfling with the crossbow. "Looks tough. Want me to shoot `im?"

"No, you idiot, you need to keep menacing the hostage." I could feel the contempt dripping in his voice. "Besides, Yem and Ykem'll have him under control."