"Okay, is there a whole strategic plan we're slotting into here?"

"Essentially: we assault the tunnel entrance, allowing no one to escape. We take the plateau from the two gunners on duty - they're high-level, but they are wizards without significant support and we will have the element of surprise, so the party should be able to take them. You and I use the artillery to take out as many of the clustered drow as possible, ideally centering the effect on their captains. From there, we defend the plateau, and when the artillery recharges, we use it again to take out the remaining soldiers."

"Okay, solid."

"Good. We're currently entering the period when the most of them sleep, which is why I revealed myself now; if we assault the tunnel entrance within the next few minutes, we can take the plateau during their off-hours and have that advantage on top of our plan."

"Wow, okay, I guess I'm prepped for it as I get but I wish I'd known last night this was happening on this time scale."

"I'm sorry. We don't strictly have to do it now, but I worry about excessive delay."

"Yeah I can cope just notes for, uh, any future occasions when you enlist a party of adventurers to help you attack a small army."

"A situation I certainly hope won't come up again, yes. At least not under this kind of time pressure."

Nathyrra leads them to the entrance to the tunnel. As she said, it's guarded; two swordswomen appear to be playing a sign-language-based word association game. Nathyrra twists a ring on her finger to turn invisible; after about twenty seconds one of the guards collapses like a ragdoll, and Nathyrra reappears only to immediately cut the other's throat. Then she bends down and cuts the first one's throat too.

She beckons the party onward.

Yikes. Okay.

At the end of the tunnel, there's a large rock. Nathyrra whispers, "There will be two wizards. I can kill one of them. Garrus, can you take the second?"

Garrus nods. "That is kind of my job," he whispers.

"Ideally we'll be able to take the artillery emplacements before anyone notices we're here - except the wizards, of course, but they shouldn't live long enough to raise the alarm. Then we can cast our short-term beneficial spells before the first strike, and defend the plateau until the emplacements recharge. Any questions?"

"Longer buffs now?"

"Yes."

Nathyrra casts Heroism for Garrus and Jojo both, and Magic Circle against Evil for Deekin.

Belmarniss takes a shield and a mage armor out of the staff, Foxes Garrus.

Nathyrra turns her ring and ever-so-carefully rolls the rock out of the way. After a few seconds there's a soft crack, and the wizard in front of the closer artillery piece crumples.

The other wizard turns to see what's going on, only to be filled with arrows. He, too, falls.

Garrus crawls out of the crawlspace, followed by the rest of the party. They stay low; the plateau has some artificial cover, probably from Stone Shape, which they're staying behind.

"You doing both artilleries?" asks Belmarniss.

"It would be better if we fired both at once, to catch the maximum number of sleeping drow - but if you don't have any major area-of-effect damage spells, I can take both."

"Got diamond spray, but I didn't know if they had to fire right away."

"They do. Diamond Spray should be fine, it'll take out the guards below and give us a bit of breathing room."

Belmarniss nods and stands ready.

Deekin casts Haste on everyone.

And Nathyrra, after a countdown, casts Chain Lightning on a sleeping drow about five hundred feet away.

The crackling lightning rips through eighteen drow in total. They die in their sleep, except for one who resists the spell, and the origin, who survives if only barely.

Belmarniss does her Diamond Spray at the same moment.