Nope. Sorry.
Back at town Kayla wanders the streets taking in any new or different sights. as well as keep an eye out for any contacts that may want to speak to her.
she pauses at the bakery, peering in the window like a little child mesmerized by all the sugary treats.
eventually making her way inside to see if there are any new creations that need to be tasted.
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Vuzi makes her way through town. She notices Kayla looking into the bakery. "Are de things ind dere gud? I'f not been inside. Sometimes de shopkeepers don't like de half-orcs." She looks with interest. "Do dey haf dis chocolate dat vu like so much?"
Over the next couple of days you see Pye gather several large, heavy backpacks full of supplies for you all to return to Vance. Looks like each of you gets one, and Emily gets Two!
"Movement underground. Saracek's destruction has weakened the priests on lower levels. Minotaurs moving to expand. Agent in danger. Clearance approved for your party only. Mission advanced to critical. Agent must be preserved. Passcode is Power Is Its Own Reward.
Good hunting."
- Talon"
The passcode sends a shiver down your spine. There is something there. Something the Mantis might trade for your freedom. But you can't know what it is exactly from the message.
Pye and Mr Black are seen together quite a bit getting your magical items made. It takes a few days, but you're soon ready.
On the morning you're setting up to depart, a group of fresh faces marches into camp led by a tall knight in shining armor. He's followed by a woman with a severe, clearly Chelaxian face in half plate, a gnome dressed like a court jester, and astrong elf in heavy chainmail carrying a huge ax.
”I fonder who dat iz. I hope de do’t van’t us to guide dem. De ca find deer own vay to Vance.” Vuzi is happy to leave town.
Simon approaches the newcomers with a joyful, curious expression, arms held wide in a universal welcoming gesture.
"A hearty welcome to all of you all-meowi!
You look ready for some nose-hurting, sticky adventures down the well, yesyes?
Or is it the stories of bloody coin and cursed swords who brought you here?
The chance to lay the restless dead to piece and battle evil even further underground-miii?"
The one in shiny armor smiles and bows slightly. We have heard tales of evil to suppress here and have come to lay the restless dead back into their peace! Well met!
"Wonderful-meeew!
There are a lot of those down there.
But also soon many nasty, stinking things I don't even know the name of-grch!
Make sure you can fight off swarms of spiders and rats and have someone able to deal with ...
Squarish-wobble-acid-things, the size of a house-meour."
"Heyda, Grelthe-purrrr, Vuzi-purrurr!
I spoke to a couple of the newcomers.
They got a tall man in shiny-blingy armour, interested in hunting the restless-frch.
Maybe, you two should talk to him and prepare him for Vance and the twinnies..."
The man in armor seems even more excited now. The others subconsciously flinch toward their weapons.
Sounds like a challenge worthy of us then! Well met! We'll see you down there, friend...?
"I bet we do at some point-meow!
The name is Simon, Sir Knight.
Ah, and one more thing: you really want someone able to sniff out traps down there: they are everywhere-frch.
Lil'Scorpy and I did disable most of them in the first two levels but I don't am not betting my tail on it, nono!"
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The Chelaxian woman holds up a hand. That's my job.
The knight, still smiling brilliantly, Simon. I look forward to sharing our tales around the table! Come, let us refresh our supplies and then set off for the great below!
The party departs, each nodding their greetings with faces that seem to apologize for their leader's behavior.
Grelthe observed the knight warily - she did not trust shiny armor, for it likely meant the one wearing it had not much actual fighting experience.
She will tell the newcomers which levels they have cleared out, describe to them the area maintained by the illusion-creature that they should avoid, and then warns them about Vance. "There is a merchant on one of the upper floors. Despite the appearance of him and his companions, they are our... friends and we would take any injury against them most personally." She flexes her muscles and raises a hand to her sword hilt nonchalantly.
"The dungeon of Rappan Athuk is a dangerous place, I hope you are prepared, and I wish you luck."
Oh, I am. That's why I brought these, my companions! There is nothing we cannot overcome together!
His other companions seem to doubt this claim, but they don't speak up.
Thankyou for your knowledge. We will see you down there! he continues. The group sets out not long afterwards.
Zadira shows up too late to meet the new party except in passing. She wonders whether she should have given them some of her maps, or whether they are just more fodder for the meat grinder. They would probably find out soon enough.
The party does what they do in town and then heads back toward the dungeons.
You see no sign of the other party.
You stop off at Vance's and notice something is amiss. He is not his usual chipper self. He is dark and... angry?
Simon feels that something is off and approaches the undead merchant with some care. His voice remains energetic and joyful as always though.
"Hi there Vance!
We brought you a motley collection of goods from the surface to fill your stock-meow!
Come here and have a good look at all this stuff!
You may want to call the twins to carry all of it-mehmehmeh."
Vance makes a signal to the Twins so come limping forward. One of them is wounded! You can't tell which one it is though. They are looking more alike every day!
Simon looks troubled.
"Meour, what happened here, Vance?
Did rats attack you?
Or where it some of those Ogres-frch?"
The wound is not life-threatening, especially for an undead troll, but it should have regenerated a long time ago. Vance reports, Some knight stopped by with a group of quiet folks. I answered the door, we talked. He looked jumpy. Then he caught sight of this one coming back from lower in the dungeon, shouted something about glory and charged. His sword was coated in acid. We just barely managed to prevent a death. For them.
Simon looks terrified and throws a side-glance to Grelthe and Vuzi, seeing how they react to this news.
Grelthe is torn... her facial features alternate between confusion, incandescent rage, and compassion. Compassion wins out as she goes to check on the twins' injury. You can hear her grumbling angrily not quite under her breath "I warned them, I told them if they hurt them...." Her healing abilities are useless, but she will rinse the wound out with a bit of water from her canteen at least. Maybe Vuzi can do better. She turns around to check the other lady half-orc's response to the whole situation.
We killing them then? Zadira asks Grelthe.
"Vat!! That shiny man he hurt de twins> I vill have a talk vith him, and give him some dead to play vith probably his companions. He vas warned." She pats the twin on the arm. "I can't heal him I vish I could. I can raise some help for you if you need it." she tells Vance.
"Simon told dem about Vance AND de twins. Dey should have known, and stopped him. Let us go and take care of dis."
Simon looks severely uncomfortable.
As he speaks his mind, his voice trembles with uncertainty and indecision.
"Uhm ... meew...
I hope we don't need to be that ... final.
Mew should have been more direct in telling them about them, maybe-miii?
Let us find them and see what ... words can do, yesyes?"
The green drains from Grelthe's face as Zadira suggests killing. "I am with Simon, I think we should at least try words first..." she grumbles angrily under her breath "even though it didn't seem to make much difference the first time..." then returns to a normal tone of voice. "Although I do think Mr. Knight's actions may have forfeited him... oh let's say... one of his fingers. He should be able to get along quite fine only missing one finger, but it would be a permanent reminder not to cross us again." She ends this grinning a bit too cheerfully for her macabre suggestion.
Her grin turns to a look of confusion. "...though I don't know how we'd get him to sit still for it. Maybe I could appear to his sense of honor and challenge him to a feat of strength?"
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As you discuss, you feel your souls seek a sense of who you are as people and as a group. This leaves you feeling oddly out of balance, but also confident that you can and will do great things together once your find your footing.
Okay, Zadira says cheerfully.
The troll flinches when you approach, but tentatively lets you clean the wound. Acid and puss ooze out onto the ground and the troll groans in relief. Before your eyes the wound closes in a matter of seconds, eliciting bad memories of that happening when you were fighting them.
Vance, still visibly angry and trying to suppress it like a good businessman, says, I appreciate you all, more than you can know, for freeing me from the chains of my hunger. That goes so much more for you, Mistress Vuzi. I will never assume to contradict your decisions. However, if I may, as offended and hurt as I am, I do not want to gain an unfortunate reputation. I would humbly suggest that, instead of vengeance, you create an opportunity for that group to see that not all undead are their foes. You could create or herd some trouble their way, and allow the twins and I to handle it.
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Grelthe has calmed much since the Troll's wound healed properly. She is amenable to Vance's suggestion.
Have youall run into anything yet that we could use? Vance asks.
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Simon throws a sidelong gaze at Kayla, then adds:
"There are reports about roaming Zentaurs some levels down-miii.
And ... there is a giant purple worm near the third level entrance."
Which do you think we could overcome in bringing salvation to this... man... and his companions?
"I don't know about their strength-miour.
But, worms of such size are no fun.
So, unless those centaurs are really bad, I think it would be better to lure them in, would it not Lil'Scorpy-miii?
Ms if things are really go bad, we are there too, yesyes?"
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"I can always raise some dead, and den allow de twins to save them if we can't find the um centaurs? Is dat vats down de level? I'd rather see dem humiliated den dead I guess." Vuzi is very happy to see that the twin is feeling better.
Kayla seemed more on alert than usual as the group moved back to the dungeons.
When (or if) asked, she either does not answer or just shrugs it off like nothing is wrong.
after a bit Kayla has vanished from the group.
she has slipped away to track this other party earlier she decided to "mark" the proclaimed rouge of the group.
As the group notices that Kayla's gone...
Nothing again. Seriously? I told you we need to go down further. the chelaxian says. The knight, the only one seeming to have a good time, laughs it off.
Maybe you're right. That other group has clearly been here! Nothing but skeletons left. Ok then. lets find a way down. They move off to find some stairs.
Hey... where is Kayla?
Zadira wanders off to find her, but happens upon a large, poisonous snake instead, which she befriends using her speak with vermin ability. She talks with it for a while and then, since it misses the guard duty it used to do in some underground temple, she brings it back with her to be her personal bodyguard. She promises that she will get a nice summon swarm spell as soon as possible, to keep it fed.
Did Kayla come back yet?
Kayla continues to follow them, concentrating on the Chelaxian. at least while they are on this level.
hoping to remain undetected she readies a Prying star to implant on the Chelaxian.
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Upon Zadira bringing up that Kayla is missing, Simon looks around in surprise. Then, remembering what they were discussing, he tries an explanation.
"Huh, I don't know-miour.
Maybe she went looking for some minions we can drive at the bullies-miii?"
*** Upon Zadiras Return ***
Simon is surprised to find the woman to be accompanied by a snake and was at the verge of shouting a warning at her but the way the snake is looking at her does not indicate any danger.
He slowly approaches the snake with curious eyes, trying to sooth-talk to it.
"Hello snakey, how are you doing in this evil place, all lost and hungry I bet, yesyes?
Is the tall one your friend now-purrurr?"
Kayla contemplates marking her target with a prying star. after a moment of thought she puts it away.
deciding to follow a little further, but she os more interested in their conversations. and observing their combat strategies. gauging their abilities.
The elf is lithe in combat and decisive in his strokes. He rarely speaks. He seems to not even care about treasure. His ax is clearly magical.
The chelaxian is definately the trap finder, but she doesn't go for flanking as much as you would expect. In fact, she seems to rely a lot on just... getting lucky, which she does with surprising regularity.
The colorful gnome is the mage, but he does magic that you've never seen before. It's flashy and sometimes makes you feel things like your skin tingling without him even being aware of your presence. He writes everything down and sends to be making some kind of book out of the group's adventures. The lack of challenge is frustrating him.
At Zadira's comment, Grelthe will finally look around and notice. "I just thought she was being her sneaky self as usual. I mean, she probably IS being her sneaky self as usual, but, um, not here. She didn't by any chance mention to anyone where she was going? No? Well then... where was the last place anyone noticed her?"
Kayla will not follow them to any deeper levels. instead as the group proceeds down, she will throw a prying star to embed itself on the chelaxian.
Kayla returns before you get a chance to wander off after her.
"Well I guess we should head for the top level we didn't finish clearing out to see if we can push some monsters toward the new folks? Anyone have any spells or abilities that frighten?"
Kayla acts as though she was never gone, I am pretty sure that the other group is heading for the lower levels. she adds.
I doubt that getting any creatures from the upper levels to follow them won't work.