Misha casts good hope on the party (including the svirfneblin). . She then, with a practiced flick of the wrists, draws her swords, and moves up next to Krieg to prevent the drow from easily flanking him.
With a swiftness born of long practice with Rikar, Latys bounds through a gap in the drow guards, rounding on one of them and lashing out with a deadly claw!
Rikar pauses briefly while Latys, a blur of fur and claws, gets into position. The towering Shoanti then strikes down the guard before him, sweeping his scythe into the air above his head and letting loose a silent, terrifying howl!
vs Rikar AC24
vs Rikar AC24
vs Rikar AC24
Misha casts Good Hope on the group, and then moves up next to Kreig to protect his left flank. Latys and Rikar, again, do what has become second nature to the pair. Latys moves to flank, and between him and Rikar swings, puts one of the drow down in pieces.
The other three drow move to kill the human with the large bladed weapon. One moves left before closing and flanking, and the other steps on where his fallen comrades lies in pieces and all three attack Rikar. However, the ranger defends himself so well that only one of the five sword swings gets thru his defenses.
Telman smirks as the elves more to surround the more-than-capable ranger. Predictable.... Satisfied that he had positioned himself well he begins sending arrows into the melee.
Kreig shifts diagonally around the enemy right of Rikar and unleashes a barrage of dagger strikes!
Downing his first target he stabs at the one south of the newly felled drow.
Therena reaches over to give Josef a bit of luck, granting him rerolls to his attacks above.
Rikar sweeps his scythe at the last drow standing, cutting him down. The strike drops the guard to the ground before Latys can even get her teeth on him, and she snarls in silent frustration!
Between the upfront warriors, and the two bowmen the remaining drow fall quickly. Once down you gather the expected treasure that all these drow guards seem to have.
The svirfneblin all seemed excited, "yes, this is the way to our home city of Ogginnogg. It is about a thirty minute walk down these tunnels."
Masterwork hand crossbow, drow elite rapier +1 , drow elite mithral chain shirt, masterwork heavy steel shield, case with 8 normal crossbow bolts and two poisoned crossbow bolts, potion of cure moderate wounds.
Spellbook: 0th—all spells; 1st—magic missile, obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement, sleep.
"Indeed, let's go."
"Do we not wish to examine some of the passages we missed back there? There is still the matter of the cleric who got away. I would hate to find her following behind us intent on some measure of revenge."
"At this point, the drow know we're in the area," Rikar offers after a few moments of thought. "We might as well get the Svirfneblin home, make some allies as Josef suggests, and let the dark elves calm down a bit. I agree with Therena, we'll need to deal with them, but for now, I say we head to Ogginoggin or whatever it is. Best to deal with the drow when their guard is down again, or when they're worn out from being on high alert for a long spell."
Kreig is wiping off the drow blood as he chuckles. "Best drinkin' game I ever played was in a gnome village inside the Sonos Forest. Lil' rascals there gotta brew there that nearly knocked me on my keester."
He stands and sheathes his twin daggers and grins in the direction of the Svirfneblin home. "Reckon we got friends here. N' if we play our cards right we can reoutfit, get some intel on the shadow-porkin' drow...n' mebbe get a drink or two in 'fore we get back ta business."
"Aww hells..." He looks at the paired holsters at his hips. "...I done firgot I had these here crossbows! I do love me some irony. N' shovin' some drow steel up there drow as..." Kreig pauses and grins widely, looking for mock support from the group. "C'mon, that woulda been hilarious, right?"
Telman wears a look of concern. "Reoutfit with friends maybe. Or bring a drow raiding party down on the city when that cleric comes looking for revenge."
"never heard a story where drow 'calm down'. I agree these fellows need to be brought to safety. But it's US that should be on high alert."
Moving down the rough paved corridor with the three svirfneblin in the lead, in about thirty minutes you come to the end of the corridor and see before you a large underground cavern that houses the city of the deep gnomes. There are dark packed stone streets, illuminated by green phosphorescent lamps and tall stone buildings. Before entering the city proper, the svirfneblin speak to you "welcome to our home. There are about one hundred drow here. They enforce a sort of martial law, and take folks off the streets for no reason, like they did to us. Those taken have never returned, till now that you have rescued us. We will take you to one of the Council members and you can talk with them. However we must be careful. If spotted by a drow patrol they will surely attack as your kind are very rare here, and usually don't have weapons. Do you understand?"
He waits for your agreement.
"Gimme an idear o' where yer headin'. I'll ghost myself along the path, keep hidden and watch our flank. Longshanks, you best do the same opposite." He looks to the deep gnomes. "Unless ya don't think it's necessary?"
"I think it better that we stick together. With the drow here, my people trust no one, and do not take kindly to strangers. You have rescued us and killed that drow team. One of the Council will listen to us, and perhaps take you to our Elder." one of the svirfneblin says.
Rikar chuckles for some time as they walk down the dark corridor, savoring Kreig's tale of drinking games with folk even shorter than he. As they reach the gnome city and the svirfneblin explain the situation there, Rikar exclaims, "Wow, I missed that somehow! Thought we were gettin' you back somewhere nice and safe, not another spot where you're under the drow's thumb."
After a moment of consideration, he continues, "Seems we could help your people throw off the drow yoke, and be doin' ourselves a favor at the same time. If we knock off enough drow here that they have to worry about keepin' control, they'll be distracted back at their place as well. Seems that killing drow is a win for almost everyone, 'cept the drow."
Turning his attention to more immediate matters, he asks, "We'll try to keep out of the way, but if we're spotted by a drow patrol, we should be able to deal with them pretty quick. Any reason we shouldn't just kill 'em?"
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"No reason other than a threat of further encounters, from what I can figure, Rikar. Seeing as how we've been taking their patrols down extremely quickly, so long as they show up in similar numbers and qualities. If they have nastier spellcasters or monstrous creatures, that might be another matter, though."
Josef readies his bow and renews his detect magic spell.
Therena addresses the svirfneblin. "If we did start taking out drow patrols, what chance is there that your people could or would rise up and help overwhelm them?"
"Five vs one hundred ....ok, girl, six vs one hundred, aren't great odds. But Therenas got the right of it; if we knew we had the support of the city we could probably do some real damage to the drow forces here. Maybe even take em all out."
He looks back over his shoulder in the direction they came from. "but if the city isn't ready and able to defend itself it'll be a short lived victory"
"I suggest we meet with their Council first before the six of us decide to wage war on a city's worth of drow--and we do so as quickly and covertly as possible lest we get more svirfneblin killed in the process. Their Council will have information and insights that will help us both--and we can make plans with the gnomes about what they want for their city, not just make decisions for them."
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"I agree wholly with Misha. If the city doesn't want our help, fine. If they do, all the better. But we are not going to win with 18 to 1 odds against these dark elves. Not in a stand up fight, not by a long shot. Besides, the council may have some other plan, or a hidden means of removing the drow threat, which does not utilize violence."
"Lookee here. I ain't leadin' no revolution without gettin' some ales in my gullet. Legs can do the talkin' with that there council, n' ifn we gotta off those lousy spider-kissin' drow...I'll get on board. Gimme a day, the right supplies, then point me to their water source." He licks thumb and forefinger and pinches them together like he's putting out a candle. "...yeah, I'll trim their wicks but good. No violence required on our part."
He shrugs and nods for the group to get a move on.
The svirfneblin that has been talking, "I will take you to Saljin, who is on the Council. You and I will tell him our story from the rescue to the killing of many drow. He is the most persuasive of the members, and should be able to convince the Elder and Lord that it is worth helping you to help us. Let us go and be as quiet as possible. Stick to the shadows as much as you can."
Moving slowly thru the town, which is fully contained within the huge cavern, the svirfneblin lead you to a stone house, that looks just like all the other houses in the area. Knocking quietly on the door, a small peep hole is slid open and a voice inside the house speaks momentarily to the svirfneblin leading you who speaks back.
The door opens and you are ushered into the house. This room is fairly large, about twenty feet by thirty feet, with chairs around a center table. An older svirfneblin stands there along with several warrior types.
The one leading you begins to speak, "Councilman Saljin, I am Zilros. You know my father Ariyur, so you know me. These uplanders rescued the three of us from the clutches of the drow and destroyed their killer team, the one that the drow threaten us with. I believe they can help us throw off the drow yoke, if the Council will approve it and help them do this. I will let them speak for themselves, but I believe they are our best hope in this."
The Councilman nods at Zilros, then turns to you "thank you for rescuing these men, and defeating the drow killer team. Who are you, why are you in the underdark, and what can we do for you?" He awaits your reply to his queries.
Rikar listens as their guide explains the situation to gnome councilman, giving a satisfied nod when he learns that the drow they've killed are the very ones that are held up as a threat against the people of Ogginnogg. Wish we had caught that last one. We may yet get a chance.
As Saljin turns to the adventurers and asks a series of questions, Rikar keeps quiet, looking to Misha or one of the other, more eloquent, members of the party to make their case.
Misha gives a respectful nod to the Councillor. "My name is Misha Keroun, and my friends and I are in the service of a surface organization known as the Pathfinder Society. We were asked to explore the depths under this mountain and research a people known as Athans, and seem to have gotten deeper than we expected. We are no friend of drow nor of slavery, and would be happy to help if we can. The drow are aware of our existence, which may be an issue, however."
If asked, Misha will give a brief description of how they got into the undedark.
"Welcome Miss Misha. We know of the Pathfinders, as we used to visit the surface regularly before the drow invaded our home and cut off our access to the uplands. If you are willing to help, I can call a meeting of the Council, and the Lord and the Elder will be present. I am sure with your help we can convince them to undertake the mission to destroy the drow, and reward you suitably." He pauses for a moment, then continues, "I will need to send runners, and it will take perhaps a day to gather the council. In the meantime, you can rest here and prepare yourselves for the meeting."
Councilor Saljin turns to the warriors and instructs them to send runners to the other Council members to meet at the appointed place, tomorrow evening.
"Now that that is done, and we wait for tomorrow evening, is there anything that I or my city can do for you? We are traders and craftsmen by nature, and we can resupply you with standard equipment. We also will trade or sell magical items if you have some or want some."
"Well talking of items, we found a bunch of stuff that we believe was yours. I was thinking it was safest to present to your council but we can also give it to you know. We were hoping we could keep some of the magic items to help fight the drow." Misha asks Josef to show them some of the contents of their bag of holding.
I'm thinking of selling my wand of invisibility that has 22 charges. Since it has less than max charges, how much is it worth? A fully charged one would have a cost of 4,500, which means a sale price of 2,250 gp. But since it has less than half the charges, I don't know what it'd be worth.
"We have been hiding all magical items from the drow. They have only managed to take some coins and gems from us." He looks over the drow weapons and equipment. "Yes, yes. We will purchase all the drow gear you have. Even those toothpicks they call swords will come in handy for us." he concludes, smirking at the thought of killing drow with their own weapons.
Everyone should get a wand of cure light wounds, then Therena and Misha can use peoples' own wands on them, and everyone can keep track of their own charges.
Looking for Pearl of Power 2<60:
Success! She buys the pearl and a CLW wand.
Rested from a nights sleep, and having purchased and sold items in the small city of svirfneblin you wait till night fall and the meeting with the city Elder and Lord.
Councilor Saljin instructs Zilros to take you, quietly and hopefully without incident to the Lords house, and he will meet you there along with other members of the council.
As you take your leave, for a while, Zilros leads you to a small back alley, and finally to a home. He knocks on the door which opens and ushers you into the sitting room. A rather large sitting room considering the size of the home. In there are six svirfneblin, one an older gentleman and the other much younger, as well as what looks to be four guards, that stay in the background and do not speak. The elder steps forward, "I am Ugothi, called Old Ugothi behind my back" as he grins at Zilros and the younger man, "and the town elder. This is Lord Gagli, who is the leader of the council. I understand that Saljin has taken good care of you, and you have saved several of our people. I thank you for that. If you would tell your tale, what brings you here, and what you are looking for, we may have a mission for you, or at least well wishes for your future adventures." He looks at the Lord, who adds, "and you will be handsomely compensated if you accept."
Misha doffs her hat at the elder, and says, "I am Misha Keroun, the explorer, and these are my fellow compatriots, all on an expedition from the Pathfinder Society. We are glad we were able to bring some of your people home before the drow could harm them further." She goes on to give a very brief overview of why and how they got here: exploring the mountain based on the reports of a deceased Pathfinder, trying to stop some inexplicable evil below or at least understand better the warnings they've received so far. She mentions they didn't expect to find themselves as deep as the underdark. She finishes, "We're happy to help any way we can if possible, though of course we'll need to know exactly what we're agreeing to do first before deciding to take on the task. On our end of things, if there's any information about the mountain or the Athans you can tell us, we'd be very grateful."