"Why are you telling me this?" demanded Waytorn.

Pavo laughed and drew a piece of parchment from his velvet vest. "The cutthroat sent to kill me wasn't very good and it would appear that he was also forgetful. He had to use a map just to reach his base, which he calls the Lair." He handed Waytorn the map.

"We already know where their base is," stated Chek. "I-"

"But we don't have a map as good as this," said Waytorn, showing it to the General. "Right down to where the latrines are!"

"Okay, but what's this right here?" asked the Stornium pointing to a spot labeled 'restricted'.

"I believe that's a mine," answered Pavo. "They're conducting a slaving operation up there and are using slaves to mine whatever it is they've found. It's restricted because once you go there they never let you out. The slaves likely have diseases, the scarlet plague maybe. Who knows?"

"I don't want to know. If this is the last of Kobalix's forces, my men are going there," replied Waytorn, tucking the map in his belt. "Thank you, Lord Rougeta. I think I'll report this to my people right now, if you'll excuse me."

"No, I won't," said Pavo.

"What?"

"You are not excused. We still have several matters to discuss," explained the Dirk. She smiled disarmingly. "You are our guest and we will not have you worrying about that war." She glanced at Zsa Zsa. "Is it not true that you wish to retire?"

"Ya right!" snorted Waytorn. "You want to see how fast every killer in a hundred league radius can start shooting at me? The only way I quit is if someone kills me. There's never been a crime lord that's stayed alive once he announces his abdication."

"There's always a first time for everything," commented Pavo's son.

"So you think I should retire? What then? Do nothing?"

"Is there any reason why you can't get married?" asked Lady Rougeta.

Waytorn nearly laughed and cried at the same time. Then he noticed she was serious. He thought about it and in light of his recent trips to the Timothy's Club, he had to agree that it had been on his mind, though seemingly a very distant and impossible thing. What was he to say? That he doubted it would ever happen? "I don't know," he replied, trying desperately to find something in the turmoil that was his mind and cling to it.

"Would you like to start a courtship?"

Waytorn looked up to see it was Zsa Zsa you'd spoken. She looked quite beautiful right then and as he thought about it, he could find absolutely nothing wrong about her. She seemed perfect. Smart, beautiful, a fair fighter... He dared to wonder what she looked like naked and banished the thought when he realized he was staring. "Yes, I would. Do you know of anyone who is also looking for a husband?"

"I do," she replied.

With those two words, Waytorn's life had turned off the violent, dangerous highway of a crime lord to a well trodden path of matrimony. He felt it happening even as he asked her who and his excitement at finally finding someone when she said: "Me."

"They should have been back by now," announced Brigadier-General Victoria. "I fear that they've run into the Ice Folk and that the war has started. Likely, they're fighting a tunnel battle even as we speak. Dillard hasn't found any entrance and the auger that Roreed and Eluth had built isn't exactly the best way to dig a hole."

"So?" said Larry. "What's your point?"

"The point is we're not doing anything. So tomorrow, I want everybody, and I do mean everybody, to go outside for a bit of a festival. We're going to have a hole digging contest with a prize of a thousand silver pieces for the biggest hole. Everyone will want to be in the festival. In addition, we'll get that fortress found, if there is one," she smiled at Dillard.

Colonel Pat looked around the meeting table and saw the dubious expressions of the commanding officers and senior knights. "I happen to think it's a splendid idea. The people here need something to boost their morale."

"True," agreed one of the knights, "but a thousand silver? That's a lot!"

"The people need incentive. Don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from and it will find it's way back to us in the end anyway," explained Victoria.

The slush had frozen partly during the night, but a quick jab with a spear and it broke. Mathex installed his siphon and the water in the hole seemed to be actually going down. Carlo wondered how much water they'd already drained from the hole. It was to the point that they had started filling buckets with water, letting it freeze and then using the bucket-shaped chunks of ice as bricks for a defensive wall.

The boy Brenda had captured turned out to be a son of a chief. The Ice Folk's digging had become desperate and there had been more bloody skirmishes. The tunnel Brenda and the boy had dug was being sealed off completely with water thanks to Mathex's siphon system. The boy on the other hand was under tight guard in a tunnel now reserved for prisoners. The boy was trying to dig his way out but was having a tough time with only his fingernails against the ice walls.

Carlo decided to take a visit to Brenda's new tunnel she was working on. He stopped just around a corner when he saw why Gisoni had warned him not to disturb her progress. She was naked except for a sweaty tunic that clung to her ample curves, a kilt and boots. She bent over and he got a very good view of her buttocks. His loins felt like they'd been set on fire and he gasped in surprise.

He wasn't the only one. Brenda turned swiftly with a gasp of her own and held her shovel before her like a weapon. Carlo quickly looked down, feeling his face flush crimson. "Sorry, Dame Brenda. I merely wanted to stop by and ask how you were doing. I had no idea..." He stopped when she placed a finger to his lips and looked up.

Brenda removed the finger. "I know. I wasn't always a killer, you know? From the sound of your gasp, I'd say I was paid a compliment. Did you know where Waytorn found me?"

Carlo blushed but refused to reply. He looked at her face and tried not to look down.

"A brothel," she said slowly. "Did you also know that when you first walked into the antechamber at Blackaxe's castle that I recognized you."

Carlo stared at her. How could she have known? It was true he had visited brothels on several occasions after getting back from a long trip surveying the Bone Sea. Every sailor did which was why there was a brothel at every port in Stornium. But he hadn't went that often for someone to actually recognize him!

"You were my first customer! And the nicest!"

This was obviously a long time ago. Carlo hadn't had a clue, but he wasn't concerned with that right now. What he was concerned was that Brenda was rubbing her body against his and kissing his lips. The fact that he was kissing back was enough for him to abandon his dignity and feel up and down her back with his hands. He slipped them into her kilt and felt her silky buttocks.

Brenda ran her fingers through his blond hair and gripped his head as he squeezed her buttocks. She slipped a hand down and began pulling off the layers of clothes until she reached his bare chest. She ran her fingers over his sinewy muscles and began unbuckling his belt.

Carlo lifted her off the ground and set her down on the pile of clothes that lay on the ice floor of the tunnel. The cold air gave him goose bumps on his skin as he lifted the soggy tunic up and over the Dame's head. He gazed upon her naked breasts for the first time. Or was it the second time? "Gott in himmel," he swore lustily in old Stornium as she stroked him. Their lips met fiercely as he gathered up her kilt around her waist.

He discovered the portal he'd been looking for and helped her to guide himself into it. It was soft and warm inside and he felt her tighten and loosen her muscles.

She drew a deep breath and guided him further inwards. Suddenly she gasped as the knight pulsed inside her flesh and pulled him closer so she could rest her head on his shoulder. Carlo began to thrust into her soft, silky flesh. She grabbed his buttocks and clung to him desperately. It had been a long time since she had felt him inside her.

Carlo felt her wrap her legs around him as he gathered urgency. He began thrusting harder and faster. It was now that the former commodore recognized her. She'd been but eighteen, he about nineteen and just the rank of Lieutenant-Commander on his first trip to a brothel. He'd lost his virginity that day with her.

She leaned back and pressed her lips to his, her tongue delving into his mouth in a kiss she'd learned in Kinian during her training as a killer. It was then that she felt herself explode for the second time in her life. The first time in a dimly lit brothel with the same man that was here now inside her and having the same raw emotions.

He felt her fluids running over him. The knight exploded inside the killer. His muscles went slack as he felt it and his mind whirled in emotions of ecstasy and remembering that day six years ago in a brothel together. The two exhausted and sweat stained knights lay there, comforted by each other's presence, lips and body heat.

Carlo stopped to wonder how long Brenda had been wanting this, telling her that although he hadn't remembered their first encounter until now, that he had been, from the start, very attracted to her. Why had she waited until now? They could have done this a dozen times before on the trip north from Stornium.

"I knew you didn't recognize me. It was six years ago after all. I was sure that you wouldn't dare approach me with anything of this manner. It wasn't until you showed up today and saw me that I really had any opportunity." She smiled up at him.

Then they heard it. They hadn't been paying much attention to anything else other than themselves or they would have noticed it already. Scraping, sort of like someone was digging in their direction. From the Ice Folk's direction.

"Dumbkopf!" swore Carlo, getting to his feet and reaching for his sword. He pulled on his pants and buckled the belt. The phrase Carlo's father kept warning him as a child 'getting caught with one's pants down' seemed fairly ironic right now.

Rolling over, Brenda grabbed her tunic and pulled it over her head frantically. She could see a faint crack of light in the tunnel where the sound was coming from. Voices, three or four of them. She scrambled to her feet, her sweat-covered kilt clinging to her thighs and legs. When they come through the hole that will be as far as they get, she thought, scooping up her halberd and taking up a position on one side of the growing hole.

Carlo held his sword before him in readiness as he took up position on the other side of the hole. He waited as it widened. Sooner or later one of the Ice Folk would venture through the hole.

A head came through the hole and Brenda promptly chopped it off. It fell to the ground and rolled past Carlo's feet. The knight stared, finding it hard to believe Brenda had been so merciless. A puddle of warm blood spread from the headless body across the frozen floor.

There was swearing from the other side of the hole and the snow burst forth showering the two knights with it. An Ice Folk warrior, a huge seven foot one, thrashed around in the snow, clubbing Carlo on the side of the head with an arm. The Stornium was throw to floor and he got up angrily thrusting his sword at the warrior.

He missed and got a different warrior who was coming through the now seven foot tall gap between the two tunnels. The huge warrior lay on the ground with his neck snapped backwards. But where was Brenda?

Carlo saw a piece of blond hair on the other side of the gap and knew with certainty that she'd went through the gap. He finished the warrior in front of him off with a quick couple jabs with the tip of his sword and thrust the body aside. Another warrior stepped forward and Carlo slammed the hilt of his sword into his face, knocking him senseless.

He hurried through the gap to find five warriors between him and Brenda. This was going to take some time, he thought as he backed through the gap so only one warrior could come at him at a time.

Brenda smashed a fist into the closest warrior's chin and whirled around bringing her foot up to smash into the man's neck, breaking it. She plunged forward, her halberd flying out and catching a Folk with the axe end. Twisting it around she plunged the point into his chest and jerked it around to parry a spear thrust. She rammed the butt end into the man's groin and pulled back to get a breath.

The Ice Folk were having a huge problem just getting near her. Now as eight men lay lifeless on the floor they were hesitant to come any closer than they had to. A foolish warrior came forward with a bone saber and the killer stabbed at him. He parried and received a blow in the chest from the butt end of the halberd plus a kick in the stomach that sent him flying back into his comrades. He got up angrily and plunged forward, his own momentum driving the halberd's point through his chest.

The other Folk had ventured closer as she'd been busy fighting and now she was caught in a semi circle of spears. They were too close. She crouched lower and swung the halberd in a wide arc clipping the spear points off and knocking them away as they closed in threatening. An overhead swing caught one warrior in the chest.

It was stuck. The warriors grinned and crowded in around her. Big mistake they soon realized when her feet and arms went into a flurry of punches, kicks and jabs. The killer snatched a broken spear from ice floor and jabbed it into their faces, her feet coming in an arc to break one of their necks. She stood back and leapt upwards into a somersault. She landed on the other side of the stunned warriors and jabbed the broken tip of the spear into their backs before they could turn around.

Desperately she looked around to discover no more warriors remained except for the one Carlo was fighting. There was over twenty men scattered around the cave, most of them already dead, some halfway there and two or three unconscious. Sighing wearily she placed a foot on a warriors chest for leverage and yanked her halberd free.

"You okay?" asked Carlo, rushing over and gathering her into his arms. "I was so worried about you!"

"I'm fine. Not a scratch."

"You're sure? You're all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Do you want me to take off my clothes so you can check and make sure?"

"Well-"

"It's not like you haven't seen it already?"

"Yes, but that's not what I meant!"

"Oh, really. You worry too much. I can take on twice this many and still come out with only a few scratches."

"But-"

Brenda ripped his shirt off and tugged his belt in the direction of her half of the tunnel where they'd laid together not long ago. "Com'on silly. Don't you want to?"

Carlo looked down at the carnage and death surrounding the two of them and looked up. His expression was one of horror. "What are you? Have you no sense of what you've just done?"

"Of course I do, but I've been trained to ignore it so that it won't bother me and give me nightmares."

Carlo wanted to, but not now. It was too soon after too much death. He was also too shocked as well that she could even think of that right now. "We better go tell Gisoni about this skirmish. Get dressed," he said, removing her hand from his belt.

Brenda frowned, disappointed, but nodded in agreement. "Later."

Grandee Rodrigo of Cherte and Graf Johann von Deltex were the slaves that found Rades at the bottom of the pit beside a shovel their captors had tossed down. What concerned Johann was that the man's left eye had been sewed shut to prevent disease. It would be a huge shock to the young man when he woke up to discover that they had torn out his eye for the Lairmaster's collection. That's if he wasn't awake when it was torn out or had since woken up. The old Stornium motioned Rodrigo to help him carry the young man back to the tunnel where the two men slept.

Rodrigo was from the little known island of Cherte which was west of Colnic. A killer that had ventured to the main land to seek aid for his financially troubled family. The matador had got a job from Kobalix for spying on King Waytorn's men. But that had went sour when the minotaur was killed by Wynic Doxon and he'd become a slave here in the Ice Lands when he came to demand payment from the Lairmaster.

Johann however had been here for the last twenty years. Ever since he'd ventured north to visit relatives in southern Kinian. He'd gotten lost in the mountains and got caught by the early underlings of then just starting out Kobalix. There was a different Lairmaster back then. Ten years ago however he was replaced by a younger, crueler man. This man liked to beat his captives before throwing them down in the mining pit. He only ripped their eyes out when they attacked him or refused to cooperate. Rodrigo was lucky to have only suffered a broken leg and have a permanent limp for the rest of his life.

The young man had been stripped of his uniform and armour so he could no longer have any proof that he was indeed a Lieutenant, and given a ragged, flea infested fur tunic, pants and boots with holes in them. The fleas would die off in the cold soon enough and the man would have to get used to his clothes. The only way one gained new clothes down here is if the old wearer died.

Food for the slaves and dung from the stables above to burn was tossed down at noon. Rodrigo would have to hurry back to the pit if he expected to beat anyone to the sack they dropped down and get enough food for himself, the old Stornium and this new lad.

The lad groaned and stirred as they set him down in a pile of rags that served as a pallet.

"Go get the food," said Johann, speaking Escherten. He knew only old Stornium and Escherten, having long forgotten the common tongue in his twenty years of isolation. He spoke softly to the young man in old Stornium, hoping the young man would understand.

Rades heard him and understood. He was however in too much pain to reply something the old man would understand. He thought he would pass out from the pain in his head. He knew dimly what had happened and was horrified that he was still alive. He opened his eye and looked at the old man. "Danke schon," he thanked the old man.

"Dein wilkommst," Johann replied. He held out a hand politely. "Graf Johann von Deltex."

Rades woke up completely, ignoring the fiery pain in his head. This was by far too important for him to pass out now. "Lieutenant Rades von Deltex," he replied. "I am pleased to meet you milord, though I fear I bear you ill news," he said in old Stornium.

"Ill news?" questioned Johann, a fair bit shocked by the sudden urgency in the young man's voice and the fact he was sitting up already. "What has happened?"

"First, how long have you been here milord Graf?"

"Almost twenty years," Johann replied somberly, realizing much has probably changed in twenty years.

"Lord Staves took over Castle Deltex after your disappearance. You've heard of the recent war with the Minotaur Empire? Kobalix's Quest?"

"Ya."

"Castle Deltex was besieged milord and it was..." Rades trailed off and he started to cry. The pain was so unbearable and the addition of his memories now shattered by the loss of Deltex was like a blunt blade tearing around in his heart. "Everyone is dead. You and I are the last of the people of Deltex. It was massacred."

"Impossible! That castle was one of the best, we had a thousand men stationed there when I was there!"

"Two thousand milord. We were outnumbered by far. The minotaur army counted 600 thousand. We could not hope to win. It is said there was not one minotaur dead from the battle due to new weapon technology. They fired crossbow bolts into the towers and onto the parapets. They splintered on contact releasing a poisonness gas that killed everyone."

"How many minotaurs died in Kobalix's Quest?" Johann demanded angrily.

"That figure is not known milord. Over a million people died in the war, about half of them were minotaurs."

"Gott in himmel!" swore Johann. He sat thoughtfully for a long time.

Rades looked around at his surroundings. The tunnel was bare of any decorations. There was a pile of dung burning at the mouth of the tunnel. There was a Stornium Shepherd lying on it's side by the fire. He turned around and looked the other way. The tunnel went on for what seemed forever in six different directions. "Is there anyway out of this place?" he asked, forgetting to speak in old Stornium.

"No," replied Rodrigo, returning with a armful of meat, hard bread and dried fruit meant to keep the slaves from getting scurvy and dying. "There is no way out other than the pit which is guarded and the sides are too slippery anyway. We've tried digging our way out, but we don't get any food unless we fill the quota with the platinum we mine here." Rades found his accent strange, almost beautiful.

"In the snow?"

"You've heard of how glaciers pick up rocks and stones as they move? Well, there's platinum in this ice. Sometimes even some iron or oro."

"Oro?"

"My friend here is from an island west of Colnic called Cherte," explained Johann in old Stornium. "In his language, oro means gold."

"Okay."

"Pardon?" asked Johann.

Rades remembered Okay was a fairly recent word and was used mostly in Arthian and Kinian to mean fine. "Fine," he corrected in old Stornium. He could tell this was going to take some getting used to.

The second flotilla included a ship called the Icicle. The captain however was not in the army, in fact he was supposed to be retired. It had taken a fair chunk of Ambrosia to convince Savin to command the first Icewarship to be built, but in the end he was quite satisfied with the ship and it's five hundred men crew. This ship dwarfed all the other ships in the flotilla and was a virtual fortress. It wasn't as fast as the others, but it's sheer bulk and seven masts including wing sails, an idea of Savin's that increased the speed by about half a knot.

They made it to the front easily with the increased speed of any Iceship, but Savin wasn't planning on stopping there. And neither was any ship in the flotilla. The plan was to cross over the no man's land and into the enemy trenches maybe even over the trenches if the ship's speed was great enough.

Word had been sent ahead to the trenches to prepare to send some of their own ships across the no man's land. They hoped to gain the enemy's trenches and force a retreat, if not a complete route. Already Savin could see the flags marking the Kinian trenches. There was over eighty yards between them and the Folk's trenches.

The first flotilla had left a spot in their trenches full of snow and ice to serve as a bridge for the ships to cross over into the no man's land. Already the ships of the first flotilla were crossing the bridge in a file. Savin ordered the helmsman to get in line behind the Snowstorm.

It was over in a minute and the Icicle was halfway across no man's land. Cross bow bolts flying from the enemy trenches got lodged in the ship's hull a few making rips in the ship's sails though it didn't slow down much due to the ship's huge bulk and increased momentum. It rammed right over the enemy trenches easily.

"Tack south," shouted Savin to the helmsman. The ship turned south and Savin pointed to cross back over the trenches. The ship turned west and then back south again as they crossed the trenches, barely. They tacked south for awhile and turned east again, gaining momentum and crossed the trenches again.

"The Folk are retreating," shouted a sailor.

Waytorn, one of Savin's few passengers came forward to watch. "It would appear that we've one a major battle captain. I meet you here later to celebrate, at the moment I have to find someone." He walked away, a troop of twenty lean cutthroats following.

Savin nodded and ordered the sailors to bring her to the halt. They'd have to confer with the other's before they could decide on where to start digging the new trenches. If that plan on digging new trenches. They might decide to take another charge at the Folk's new trenches or even go to Fort Phal.

The cutthroat looked around the empty stables. He was late for the hole digging contest. Then he noticed something. Pothax bent over to pick up the discarded crossbow. He didn't recall seeing it there before. Where'd it come from and why? Then he noticed it lacked the crosspiece. Memories of Snowdancer's companion pointing the weapon at him and the cold fear he'd felt told him not to touch it.

He received a heavy blow to the head and fell to the dung covered floor. He struggled to keep his consciousness as he saw Snowdancer and her warrior companion lean over him.

"Pothax?" asked a voice. It sounded like Kerry. He turned to face her and saw the Ice Folk warrior smack her across the face and throw her over his shoulder. He struggled to stand up but Snowdancer knocked him over the head with a Katunka.

"What now?" asked Blackthunder as he secured his hold around the maiden. "We did not plan this?" he said in the Tongue, pointing at the Princess.

"Bring her along. She may make a good ransom. If not, we can always throw her in the pit," replied Snowdancer, dragging the cutthroat towards the cat-sled.

They didn't find any underground fortress. Nevertheless the boost to the morale was encouraging and the fact that Captain Slor, Eluth and Roreed won the prize for the deepest pit and later agreed to give most of it back to the treasury was not a complete waste. Victoria felt sorry that Dillard had been wrong but she encouraged him to keep looking. The entrance was probably hard to find and farther to the north-east.

It was Kerry who first noticed Pothax and her sister were missing. She assumed the worst, thinking Pothax had betrayed her and slept with her own sister. However a search proved that neither were around and she went to Victoria to report them missing. She stopped outside the Brigadier's office and eavesdropped.

"They carried them in a cat-sled out the north gate. Since there was so few people here in the fort, no one noticed but the guards. They struggled with the guards, though they got away due to the cougars they had with them," explained a warrior from within. It sounded like Captain Slor.

"Oui, especially that albino one!" added a second voice, probably the captain that had been guarding the gate.

"That sounds like Snowdancer's cougar," said Wynic. "Have you sent someone to track them?"

"Yes," answered Captain Slor. "Dillard, Eluth, Roreed, and Lieutenant Adrienne went after them.

Someone was running down the ice hallway, making a huge racket. Kerry backed away from the door. She didn't want to be caught eavesdropping...

Adrienne ran around the corner and nearly ran into the Princess. "We found the fortress entrance," she gasped. Kerry's heart leapt with joy at her words. Together they burst into Victoria's office, both of them talking at once and pointing excitingly.

"Quiet!" shouted Victoria. "Adrienne, what's going on?" she demanded.

The Lieutenant took a deep breath. "We found the entrance. Dillard nearly fell into it, that's how hard it is to see. We followed the tunnel until we came to a wooden gate guarded by about twenty men. That means there's lot's more than that."

"Of course," said Larry. "There's probably over twenty-thousand, since that's the amount that went missing after Kobalix's death."

Waytorn moved through the confusing crowds of sailors, warriors and knights, drawing many stares. "Mathex," he shouted. He waved at the minotaur. "Have you seen Dame Brenda? I'm looking for her!"

"She's with Sir Carlo. They're down at the well," shouted the minotaur. He pointed to the south. "We finally got it emptied!"

Waytorn turned around and looked south. It wasn't hard to find the well. It was a twenty-foot deep pit that most people avoided now, though there was many tracks leading to and from the pit. "Brenda!" he shouted.

No response.

The King Culprit motioned his bodyguards to stay put and crawled down the pit. "Brenda!" he shouted, clinging to the edge and climbing into the space below. He crouched so as to not bump his head on the low ceiling and looked around. He could see torch light some distance away though it was hard to tell distance when everything was completely black. "Brenda?"

"Dumbkopf!" swore someone in old Stornium. There was scuffling sounds and a few groans. Waytorn raced towards the sounds, wondering what could be wrong. Had the ceiling collapsed or something?

And then he saw. He smiled and shook his head. So he was the problem. He made no pretense of blushing as he came into the light. It wasn't the first time he'd seen Brenda naked. "Dame Brenda," he smiled. "We've discovered the poacher's layout. It would seem they've been making mistakes left right and center because we now have a map of the fortress, which appears to be more of a mining operation." He smiled at Carlo. The knight smiled weakly and finished buttoning his tunic.

Brenda grinned. "You want me to come too?" She made no move to clothe herself and cover her nakedness.

"And Carlo, if he wants too?" he said to the Stornium.

"Sure!" he replied.

"Good, I'm anxious to finish this business but the commanders want this war to drag on for some time. Captain Savin's warship, the Icicle, is being prepared to leave, unbeknown by the commanders. With the exceptions of General Chek, General Gisoni, Lord Blackaxe and Lord Redhawk, who will be accompanying us."

"Disobey orders?"

"Of course! It's not like we haven't done it before!"

"Captain Savin," said Sir Carlo, "I see they've managed to talk you into this as well. What about your crew? Won't they report this to the other commanders?"

Savin grinned and chuckled. "Thanks to Waytorn's resourcefulness here, my crew is made up mostly of pirates, cutthroats, killers and mercenaries. They won't tell anyone because their loyalty belongs to Waytorn here."

"Those few that don't belong to Waytorn are Blackaxe's, Chek's, Gisoni's or my men," added Lord Redhawk. "Nobody will realize what happened until we're halfway to Fort Phal to pick up the rest of our crew. Don't be surprised if they've already found this underground fortress we've been told about!"