"The Wardstone's supposed to be in the Kite - that's almost a quarter mile away! How the Abyss did it get here? Demons aren't supposed to be able even to come near it! Deskari's not a normal demon, but - were we only protected all this time because the demon lords were too afraid to come out?"

"I don't think it was just moved here. There were demon bodies outside, they shouldn't have been able to stand right beneath it without being cooked. And even if it's still working, the whole center of the city is west of here, and now demons can just walk in - this is worse than the day Khorramzadeh attacked!"

"Then it's even more important to help the remaining defenders of the Garrison! And if there aren't any, find whoever's left in the city and retake it! I don't even know how we'd move the Wardstone back to the Kite, it's massive -"

"I'm not hearing any fighting? Perhaps we should find a safe passage to the city, to bring the Neathers out, and find the defenders."

"There were voices - they might be our people up there. Can we check safely?"

Anevia grimaces. "We're really bad at sneaking around as a group, and it's not even dark in here. I think either we send one person to scout ahead, someone who's willing to die rather than talk if they're caught - and frankly, I'd be best at it - or we take a look outside first."

Seelah really, really hates the idea of Anevia sneaking in alone and maybe being caught! "If the people here aren't fighting right now, they probably don't need our help urgently?" she suggests.

"I don't like the idea of sending a scout into danger." At least half the reason is that usually he's the one being asked to do that, but unfortunately he isn't really qualified to scout an uplander fortress.

"Or we can find a way out, and then come back and shout, and run away if the wrong people answer."

"Let’s look for a safe way down, at least."

"We can drop down to the ground floor, the front door was unblocked... but there might be someone outside watching it. Let's check the other door first."

The other door leads to a series of storage rooms (and a little kitchen), with dead bodies in a couple of them; these are unarmed and unarmored and may not have been fighters, or might have just been caught unaware.

Eventually it leads to stairs down and a room that opens into the same ground-floor open space that they saw from above. The Garrison doesn't have side entrances, or at least not easily discoverable ones.

"We could try to sneak to the front doors to surprise any guards that might be outside... But someone might be watching from above, from an angle we don't expect. Or we could abandon stealth and just run for it, they're unlikely to be set up to block escapes."

"I still hope they're friendlies. We shouldn't attack them on sight unless they're very obviously cultists."