After taking care of Ehren and Val, Anevia starts to look over all the loot around them... while Xanderghul was focused on the caster, she'd focus on her kill... but she wouldn't shy away from stealing some of the armaments of the fallen dwarves to help rearm the prisoners. Anything that looked particularly well made would get stripped down and readied to be taken by the team.
"I... uh... don't speak their language." Ary says as the line of prisoners starts to cower. She frowns and puts the Lucerne hammer away, holding up both hands and making a downwards motion with them, attempting to say it's okay. This wasn't working at all.
"I'm okay," Ehren says to Hinagiku reassuringly, a slight smile forming on his stone visage. As much as he would like to drop the form, he did not want to risk doing so until they were off the Long Walk. "They barely put a scratch on me."
As they meet with Javyn, Ehren says nothing when he mentions Tellia. He looks to Lann, knowing that her loss must still be a source of pain for him. Of all the things they talked about as friends, their love lives were seldom a topic of discussion. Even when it did come up, it was more often than not a one-sided conversation.
"Can you get them to cooperate, Lann?" he asks, grimacing as Ary unintentionally terrifies the surviving prisoners. "Her hammer should make short work of their chains."
With Hinagiku's help, they make short work of ensuring everyone was in good enough shape to continue on. "Thanks, Hinagiku. Were you able to subdue the dwarf?" she asks, curious what had happened in the back while they had been dealing with the soldiers up front.
She then heads over to help check the Duergar, picking up the wand and ointment that detect as magical, though apart from the rune inscribed on the lid of the ointment, she makes little headway in identifying their purpose. "The ointment has 'vision' inscribed upon it," she explains to the group. She hands the bag of diamond dust to Ary and the wand and ointment to Xanderghul, hoping he'll be able to identify them.
She then gives the leader and her companion a quick double-check to make sure they hadn't missed anything.
"Yes, it's as Ehren says. Lann--and Javyn--if you could explain to the others that we need to break their chains Ary will be able to free them in short order. Once they are free they should loot what they can from the duergar as well."
"I was able to keep him away from the fight, yes. But Mr. Xanderghul is the one responsible for freeing Mr. Dornarnus from the spell that had taken hold on him." Hinagiku answers to Isilme.
Having said that, Hinagiku walks toward the dwarf paladin and bows to him, a slight one, not a deep bow.
"I apologize for this fight we got into. To answer your question, one of us is a pathfinder, Mr. Xanderghul here." she motions in his direction. "However, we did hear about you from Mr. Sandricaan."
Xanderghul holds up the ointment. "Ah, a valuable spell component," he says, before pocketing it. "This will allow me to cast true seeing once." He gives a small exasperated sigh. "Some magic is just so inefficient."
He turns to the others. "Are we ready to go now? My magic is nearly depleted, so I would appreciate it if we got to a safe location."
Dornarnus laughs at the mention of Sandricaan. "Sandricaan! That dusty old scholar. Certainly the last man I would expect tae send a rescue party to save my old beard. But a welcome surprise, of course. I will have to thank him personally."
The staff is magical as well, and possesses an aura of divine enchantment magic.
The duergars' equipment is utilitarian, and largely of inferior quality to the work that she's become used to seeing at Drezen. However, most of the duergar carry basic alchemic equipment - each corpse has at least one alchemist's fire and a thunderstone for good measure.
Isilme also inspects the slaver's bodyguard, finding:
-> Two glass flasks containing a red liquid
-> 3 thunderstones
-> Masterwork light steel shield
-> 129 gold pieces in a small pouch
-> an iron ring with several iron keys
Javyn's ears perk up at surprise at Ary's admission. Lann interjects, "Ary, this is Javyn, Javyn, this is Ary Bishop. She is my Commander, and also a dear friend, besides that. She has many responsibilities back at home, and yet despite that she did not think twice to come help me find you when I asked."
Javyn frowns, immediately sympathetic. "I did not know that drow lived in the lands above as well as below. I will do my best to try and calm them, but try not to hold it against them. Here the only creatures more feared than the grey dwarves are the drow."
Javyn and Lann then spend time slowly coaxing the frightened slaves, taking them one at a time to Ary so that she could break their bonds with her lucerne hammer. Dornarnus and Grila stand off to the side during this time, conversing quickly with one another in Undercommon while their people help each other shed their chains, and administer medical attention to those who need it.
"We will need tae go soon," says Dornarnus, returning to face the heroes. "The light from the previous battle will've been visible from the next outpost, several miles down in the other direction. They will send outriders tae investigate, and once they find the bodies, they will attempt tae hunt us down."
"Grila is worried that this will draw the duergar's ire towards seeking out and slaying her kin. She did not expect your fighters tae be skilled enough to kill their leaders, and so they will attempt to seek vengeance, as Thulmaga was a feared member of the Droskari clergy... But, I think we can solve this problem with the solution tae another! You see, my men are weary, and I think it has been too long since we have last laid eyes on the hospitable walls of Jormundun. I propose that we work together tae lead the duergar away from this place, so that the blame for these deaths be laid on myself and my kin, rather than on Grila and hers. Once we have returned tae our stronghold in the Mindspin Mountains, the duergar will be forced tae give up. They have not the men nor skill needed tae lay siege on our people, all tae avenge jus' one o'their own."
Dornarnus strokes his beard. "Ye are all obviously skilled fighters and spellweavers. Do any of ye have any ideas on how tae pull this off?"
Xanderghul continues to examine the magical gear that the group picked up while Dornanus and his compatriots talk. He overhears their talk about their next plan, and perks up. "Do you mean to say that we're returning to Janderhoff, or that you know the location of Jormundun? We fought a duergar some time ago who had been searching for that lost Sky Citadel. I didn't think anyone knew where it was."
He picks the potions off of the body of the guard and hands them to Ary. "More healing potions for our stockpile," he adds.
"Does anyone have any dwarven gear that we can leave behind? Or maybe we can write a note in Dwarven and pin it to Thulmaga's corpse? Several of us are capable of transforming our forms, and we - plus the dwarves - can make ourselves seen to pursuers. I am also capable of illusion magic that can allow the appearance of dwarves in the train."
Dornarnus nods. "Aye, we call ourselves Angradd's Liberators. We could leave our rune here with the bodies so they knew we were here. Cheeky-like, it'll really rile 'em up. Then we gotta get away, not goin' so slow tha' we actually get caught, but also a bit sloppy on purpose... that way the slow-witted blighters don't get too confused and end up going the wrong way."
Xanderghul moves to examine the staff more closely, but luckily, just as he reaches out to pick up the item he notices something off about its aura. It was trying to mislead him. The staff must have been warded with a curse.
He could attempt to identify the curse, if he picks up the item.
"We did get a little carried away..." Ehren admits, looking to the heaps of duergar corpses. Their daring rescue mission had quickly turned into an onslaught. For better or for worse, they had left no survivors.
Pondering Dornarnus's question, he looks over at the large pool of mud he created. There were several bodies already submerged in the thick, sticky mud... Xanderghul and the dwarf's plan might work well enough, but perhaps there was a "cleaner" solution.
The "road" here is just that - a paved road, made with stone bricks - and so any alterations to it would be painfully obvious to dwarven eyes. It would take careful craftwork to actually replicate the road's brick pattern, particularly at the same level of wear and tear that it was at formerly (making it look "brand new" would similarly stick out).
Ehren quickly dismisses the idea, realizing that even his powerful (but clumsy) earth magic would not be able to get anywhere close to replicating dwarven craftsmanship.
"We had to take the side tunnels to get this far as quickly as we did," the druid explains to Dornarnus. "And to avoid duergar patrols. Which way should we take now?"
"Och, ye, I'd say about the same way as ye came. Long Walk's gonna be too dangerous. We'll take the side tunnels, but we should leave some evidence of our passage, so we don't lead them to these mongrelmen's tribe," says Dornarnus. "I can help lead the way but I'll need some help gettin' me bearings. Anyone else here good at navigatin' in the tunnels?"
Isilme picks up the gold, shield and keys from the bodyguard and then finds one of the chained up dwarves. "Lig dom iarracht a dhéanamh tú a shaoradh", she says, trying each one of the keys in turn. Once she verifies that the keys work, she tasks that dwarf with freeing the others as quickly as possible.
She then spends some time considering the dilemma that Dornarnus had brought to their attention. It was certainly true that retaliation against the underfolk could pose a serious problem if the Duergar decided to do so aggressively. Blaming the incident on Angradd's Liberators, however served both to direct attention away from the underfolk as well as to boost the stature of the group, likely making the duergar more wary of travel through the long road and thereby slowing down their trade.
Eventually she chimes in with an idea. "If we want to truly rile them up and make them come after your group, why not place Thulmaga's head further down the Long Walk along with the rune and a brief message in the stone? Grisly, it's true, but it would make it seem as though the entire incident was intended to send a message. We could clean up the trails that lead off into the side caverns here as well to make it difficult to link the underfolk to the raid."
"I definitely thought twice." Ary says, shaking her head. "Like you said, many responsibilities." Ary says offering a small smile. "Glad I did, since I don't think anything's caught on fire back home."
Anevia, meanwhile, is rifling through the bodies and gathering all the alchemists flasks and thunderstones into a pile to be distributed... or simultaneously detonated. That would be pretty funny as well. 'No idea what happened at the outpost'... she briefly considers removing all of the duergar's shoes and scattering them about to make it look as though they'd been knocked clean off... but realizes that they don't really have time for that.
She instead grabs the shield and removes it carefully. It was a nice shield and even if the twiddle-fingers didn't say it was magic, it would go well on one of the freed folks. In particular, one of the dwarven guard might want it!
"Also, I've never seen a drow, no. This is the unfortunate and long-lasting repercussion of a poorly planned assault on a hostile invader that was well above our capacity to bring down." she explains, chewing her lip, "Technically two. We fought over a completely empty Shelynite chapel that we'd received intel was full. It was a bad day."
"I'm mostly exhausted and weary from the day." she says, overhearing parts of the conversation from Xanderghul and the dwarf, "But leaving an obvious trail shouldn't be too hard."
Anevia comes back to the group with a small armful of alchemist's fire and thunderstones, carefully waddling. "'Smore back there," she says, as she approaches the dwarves, the masterwork shield sticking out of the space between her pack and her body.
"How safe would it be for Grila and her group to split up and make it look like most of the procession ran in different directions, then double back? Do you know how dangerous this particular area is? Is this shield magic, or should I give it to our not-so-armed escorts?" she says, looking to the twiddle-fingers.
Dornarnus nods in agreement with Isilme. "I like the way you think, lass. I'll get to work chiseling our rune into the wall, so someone else can work on that bit. The duergar think these paths theirs, so that will make our name stick."
To Ary, Dornarnus replies, "Lots of these folk will be going with Grila. The better for them, I think they'll be safe with her. I mean, did you see the size o' tha' bulette she's got?" he gestures back at her. She is busy tending to the wounded amongst the various freed Darklands peoples. "Even so, I'd feel better if we take on as much of the risk as possible so that they don't have to, ye know?"
"I don't really think anywhere down here is safe, at least by proper reckoning. But, we'll have to make do."
You've been keeping track of your location well enough that you feel confident that you could outmaneuver the duergar, even on your own. In any case, the way back to Janderhoff is clear - you must all backtrack to the closest exit off of the Long Walk, then split off from the Gunduara tribe. There, you'll have to work to ensure any pursuers chase you, and not them.
While Dornarnus is ready to move, it is clear that many of his men aren't. Some have been maimed by the cruel duergar, and will need to be carried. Also, others appear to be demoralized. You wonder how long they've been down here, fighting endlessly in the darkness...
You've read enough works (fictional, or otherwise) about dwarves to have a good sense on how to properly address them. You may take a +2 circumstantial bonus to skill checks when addressing dwarves.
You think you could buy everyone some good time by identifying a good spot in the tunnels to cause a cave-in. This would make it obvious which direction you fled in, but also buy you some time by forcing the duergar to dig past.
Without thinking, Xanderghul reaches for and picks up the staff. He was certain that he would be able to resist whatever magic the duergar had in store for him. Even if he couldn't, he could use his connection to the source of all magic to remove the curse. Even if that didn't work, he had multiple companions capable of removing powerful afflictions around him. Everything would be fine, he felt quite secure.
It's clear to Isilme that while Dornarnus has plenty of energy, it is mostly because he was left unharmed as a thrall of Thulmaga. His allies had not fared so well, however, as slaves. Clearly another solution was needed in going forward with their plan. "Dornarnus, I believe I might have a better solution. Grila had previously expressed interest in flexing their might against the duergar, which is why they accompanied us upon this mission. They could make excellent allies for Angradd's Liberators to work alongside. I suggest we allow your men and the underfolk to retreat to their village. In the meantime we will bait the duergar pursuers in a different direction and then eventually double back to the village. There we can aid in getting everyone in condition to move out, and Javvyn and our group can attempt to help get a working relationship built up between your folk and Grila's tribe."
"Agreed, this is their home... if we lead the enemy away, they get to keep it a bit longer." Ary says, nodding. "It shouldn't be too hard to maneuver through this area... we've been weaving through it pretty well constantly. It's more about avoiding other dangers... or possibly leading the pursuers into it?" she suggests.
"Lann, will you ask how their men are at disguising their own trail? Maybe Grila is particularly good at it, or maybe Javyn?" she says, looking to the pair in turn. "What sorts of magic do you have access to, Javyn?"
Anevia bounces on the balls of her feet, "We could also set up traps with all the thunderstones and flasks!" she says, grinning, "And keep some of them... they're actually pretty valuable, if mostly useless against demons. And we can give some to the ex-prisoners!"
The manacle on the staff clasps around Xanderghul's arm!
As soon as Xanderghul grasps the staff, he feels that the creation is diametrically opposed to his newly-found motivation to champion goodness and righteousness. He can feel it as soon as his fingers graze the cold iron - this staff has one but purpose, to enslave and subjugate.
Xanderghul is stronger than any mere magic item. After a brief struggle, he manages to subdue the ego of the intelligent staff. It would take more than a puny staff to turn him against his allies.
He looks up, staff in hand. "Be careful," he says. "This staff is intelligent. It will try to dominate you and force you to enslave people."
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Talks about leaving a gruesome scene to rile up the duergars did not agree well with Hinagiku. Still, they were able to think of things that would never come to her, and she knew that it would be for the good of the people they had saved.
Just as she is about to go and check on the wellbeing of the ones she had rescued, maybe something her spell couldn't heal, Hinagiku notices Xanderghul's reckless action. Though she is glad to hear him say he resisted the items power, she cannot help but think of his recent actions. There was something strange about them, he was being less and less careful, as the attack on the landshark had shown not so long ago. How could his time in even change him in such a way? Or was it the time he had spent finding followers in the world? Or was it the power that was getting to his head?
Watching Hinagiku's reaction to the suggestion, Ary shakes her head. "Just as easy to bind her in some of the slave's manacles beside your symbol as to deface her body, yeah? Gets the same point across, that the slavers won't be the ones in control when you're done?" Ary suggests. "It's less inherently cruel... but we can definitely still intimidate them with it, I'd think. And the more duergar we attach the better. If you've got any engineers with you... we might also be able to rig up a trap with some thunderstones?" Ary suggests as Hinagiku starts to move away to find something else to focus on.
Leaving the planning to the others,Ehren frowns when he sees Xanderghul holding Thulmaga's staff, more so when he explains that it is yet another evil intelligent magic item. Even the good one they encountered was foul-tempered and possibly insane. For a moment the druid's thoughts turn to the former Corruption Forge, and their long-running plan to give it a newer, less sinister purpose. Once completed, perhaps they could test it on the staff... assuming it does not end up enslaving Xanderghul first.
"Is that going to be a problem?" he asks with concern, eyeing the manacle around the wizard's wrist.
The manacle remains tight around Xanderghul's wrist. It doesn't let go, and there are no obvious seams or holes for a key to go into.
Grasping the cool iron staff in his hand, Xanderghul can feel the writhing evil just beneath the surface. Images flash in his mind, the what ifs. Unable to subjugate him, the staff appears to be trying to convince him. He sees himself, lording over armies of slaves, all enraptured in their service to his almighty will. He sees himself leaving these slaves to their final destination: Hagegraf! The center of duergar power! Where the duergar work ceaselessly in devotion to Droskar - oh, Droskar - the staff appears to have an undying love, a slavering devotion, all focused on the god of the grey dwarves. But in the images in his mind, Xanderghul can see that Droskar could promise him great power, power well beyond what puny Thulmaga could have ever hoped to wield. All he had to do was swear himself to him. His body, his mind, his soul. And then all that power would be his...
The images he sees are intrusive, but Xanderghul has control for now. He knows though, that intelligent magical items only have a rudimentary sort of consciousness.
None of that matters, of course - what matters to Xanderghul is what the staff can do for him. He recognizes that the manacle is an important part of the staff's functionality. If it is broken, the staff cannot be used, as the necessary flow of magic within the staff would be disrupted. But while intact, the staff currently has 5 charges, to a maximum of 10. These charges can be used to cast command (1 charge), greater command (2 charges) or dominate person (4 charges).
Any creature that fails to resist a command spell cast from the staff suffers a -2 penalty on saving throws against greater command spells cast from the staff for the next 24 hours. If the same creature then fails to resist greater command, that creature suffers a -4 penalty against dominate person spells cast from the staff for the next 24 hours, as well as any saves to break free from that spell as long as it persists. If the staff is destroyed, or if it's wielder dies, all spells previously cast from it automatically end.
However - there is a catch - the staff's creators intentionally placed a curse upon it. While still cursed, the staff will reflect the intended targets back unto the wielder...forcing any wielder who is not a duergar worshipper of Droskar to obey the same actions they they attempt to force others to perform.
Furthermore, the staff will never function in the hands of a dwarf that isn't a duergar, for as long as the staff possesses consciousness.
While all of this is happening, Dornarnus and the dwarves seem rather agreeable to Isilme's idea, as well as Ary's. He grins. "Dwarven Lords be praised, Grundinnar himself must have blessed us personally, lads, to have sent us such strong and skillful allies. Aye, we can try to figure something out with these supplies. I like the idea of turning their own tricks against them!"
Grundinnar is a member of the dwarven pantheon of gods. He is one of Torag's many sons, and his major role in the pantheon is to mediate fights between the dwarven gods. He is a god of friendship, of loyalty, and of allegiances.
She certainly didn't think that the corpses of slavers deserved any respect or deference, and intimidation of the duergar--or in Staunton's case the cultists--was a valid reason to do such a thing. After all, the lives of innocents were on the line. Nevertheless, she also didn't think this situation was so urgent or pressing that it justified arguing with Ary about it. "I don't think that beheading Thulmaga is any different than with Staunton, and I certainly wouldn't describe it as defacing the body. Nevertheless, hanging her body from shackles next to the rune would certainly send a similar message, and we have no pressing need for 'portability' of the message as we did with Staunton." she replies finally. "Do you still have the ability to shape stone, Ehren?" she asks, picking up a pair of manacles from the ground. Melding the chain directly into the stone would be the easiest way of securing her, after all.
Isilme thinks for a moment on how to put the alchemical supplies to use as a trap. "I am not certain how best to go about it, but a deadfall might be the best way to make use of the stones and potions. We could place it along the path we are baiting them to further enrage them," she explains.
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With one finger up and his best 'well actually' face on, Xanderghul takes this opportunity to correct Isilme. "I don't want to take either side in this argument, but removing someone's head is quite literally de-facing the body. Removing the face."
While the others figure out the trap and the dwarves and chaining up corpses, Xanderghul begins to walk back towards the citadel and the rest of the captives. He wanted to see what the Gunduara tribe were doing with the other freed Underfolk. Plus, he didn't feel safe just standing there in the open hallway, not after Dornanus had mentioned that more duergar armies were coming for them.
Meanwhile, he ponders on the weapon. This thing seemed to be a trap, and it looked like he had been caught. Nevertheless, it was a powerful tool. He projects his thoughts back into it, to commune with it. He shows the staff a counter-image to the images of Xanderghul-as-powerful-slavemaster.
He shows the staff the people who are already loyal to Xanderghul. He shows the staff that he has no want for anything, and so has no need for slaves. He shows the staff Xanderghul as a holy man high on a mountaintop, with his head surrounded by a corona of light. Images of Xanderghul heroically battling armies of demons for the fate of the universe. He impresses on the staff that Xanderghul is a good man, a powerful man, who has no use for slaves. He shows the staff itself, lying unused in a storage shed while he rescues Droskans, converts them to the worship of himself, and leaves with them to have happy, fulfilled lives.
But... Xanderghul is not so Good that he would not use a tool as powerful as this staff. He has no use for slaves, but that does not mean that domination is a useless task. Besides, this staff cannot really take slaves. No slave will fall under the sway of the staff forever. Xanderghul shows the staff an image of himself freeing Dornanus from its influence using a weak abjuration spell. Then, an image of the staff submitting to Xanderghul's will.
He shows more images. This time, he paints a picture of a city of thieves, murderers, cheaters, and liars. This den of iniquity is dirty and broken and needs to be tamed. Xanderghul steals his way into the city, invisible, distracting the guards with illusions. Carefully, he pulls the staff out of his pack. The staff does not manacle Xanderghul, but instead allows him to place it in a prominent spot before escaping. Eventually, a murderer notices the staff, and sees that it must be valuable. The murderer picks up the staff, which manacles him in the name of Droskar. The weak-willed criminal submits easily to the Ego of the staff, and suddenly it has no want for targets to choose from to enslave. People who deserve to be enslaved. Those who will not be rescued by others (unlike Xanderghul himself, he reminds the staff, showing it images of his friends freeing him from the staff's influence and tossing it into an endless void).
Xanderghul projects an image of the staff's manacle opening.
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Isilme ponders a retort for a moment, but decides against it, what with the old adage about not letting Xanderghuls pull you down into the mud. Plus she had to admit that it was a fairly entertaining point, even if she wasn't about to give Xanderghul the satisfaction of admitting it.
The staff is silent as it receives Xanderghul's message, though he can feel its presence at all times as he wields it. It feels like a inky, writhing corruption, deep within the heart of the staff - only just conscious enough to be truly malevolent. In its simple way of viewing the world, there were two sorts of creatures: the slavemasters, and the enslaved. And even then, both sorts of creature were nothing but tools to be used by Droskar.
Xanderghul, though, he wasn't a slave. He had proven that much today. He was only fit to be a master. And if it took time for him to come around and see his true potential, the staff was willing to wait. It was a staff, after all, it had all the time in the world.
Suddenly, the manacle releases from Xanderghul's wrist with a faint clack! He can feel himself disconnect from the magic of the staff as soon as it releases him. He would clearly need to be attached to the magical staff through its manacle and chain, should he ever attempt to wield its dark powers.
Xanderghul opens up the central pocket of his haversack and slides the staff in there. Such an evil weapon would need to be carefully contained, going forward.
"Vhane was different. We needed to demoralize the enemy immediately and raise morale on our side... and parading his body around was the quickest way to do it." Ary says, shaking her head. "We've also got Ehren's spiky ground as an option... so we need to determine where to put that. Do you guys think I should go with the other group to help cover their tracks, or something else?" Ary asks as she starts to do some busy work of getting things set up for the traps they were going to make. Someone else would need to provide the real direction for it, but she'd do her best to enable them - as always.
"We should get this set up and head out, once we've decided." she adds.
Ehren relaxes when Xanderghul frees himself from the staff's hold and stows it. Not that he distrusted the wizard - at this point, he has just grown accustomed to intelligent magic items being liabilities.
"I can stone shape several more times if needed," Ehren says to Isilme, eyeing the chains. He much preferred Ary's idea, as opposed to mutilating Thulmaga's corpse. Not necessarily because she deserved any form of respect, but because the act seemed needlessly violent. In either case, the beatdown that killed her had already reduced her to a bloody mess.
"I wouldn't worry too much about the Gunduara, Ary," he says as he helps Isilme set up their grisly message. "I wager that they are more familiar with these caves than any of us. It is for the best that we stick together."
Val is hesitant to lower herself down to the ground while she's still blind and takes a few moments to carefully decrease her altitude until she's safely on the stone floor. Anevia's quick work is a welcome relief. "Saved my ass again, huh?" The tiefling playfully nudges her friend's shoulder as the group begins looking for anything of use on the duergar. She does what she can to help, though leaves it to others to figure out just what their various magical trinkets are. It wasn't like she was particularly useful in that field to begin with. "I kind of like the bait and switch, but honestly, I really don't care what happens to the body. These people are the worst sort of slavers I've ever even heard of, and I grew up in Cheliax. I'm not really one to pay evil unto evil, but..." She just kind of shrugs indifferently.
The heroes decide to just prop up Thulmaga's body next to Dornarnus' carefully inscribed rune, rather than attempting to intimidate the duergar with some sort of grisly display. Isilme convinces the dwarves to instead head to shelter amongst the Gunduara, while the heroes and Dornarnus and Javyn head off in a different direction to mislead the pursuing duergar down a different path.
Javyn proves to be rather adept at traversing through the tunnels himself. Unshackled and reunited with Alboras, he helps delay the duergar pursuers by sculpting a wall of solid stone across one of the tunnels. Neither Javyn nor Dornarnus were terribly familiar with this stretch of Darklands wilderness, but Ary assists Isilme in helping them keep their bearings as they chart a course away from where the others were headed.
After several long hours of travel, the tunnel that they are in ends at a surging underwater river. Trying to double back now could be risky, if they assumed their pursuers were on their heels, it was a very long time since the last branch in the Nar'Voth tunnels.
Javyn opens his palm, sending four pale lights down the river. Whenever he casts magic, strange colored lights beneath his flesh pulse in a hypnotizing rhythm. Using these as floating spotlights he finds that a hundred feet and fifty downstream, the river courses beneath a natural archway. "Look, there's another way," he says, pointing. The path above the river leads down into an alternate tunnel, with two exits on opposite sides of the river.
The tunnels further down the river head to the left, and to the right, from your vantage point. Perhaps it would be an ideal place to try and lose your pursuers' scent. If the left-hand tunnel curves further left, it could be a even be a good place to try and start to double back.
Dornarnus cracks his knuckles and gestures to Javyn. "I think I could swim that, if I leave my armor behind. I could carry wee Javyn with me."
When no one else volunteers for turning Ary and Isilme's contraptions into a weaponized assault, Anevia sets to work getting them ready to find a location to set them up and prime them... it shouldn't be too hard. It was like putting a bucket of holy water on top of a door in case a demon broke in. As she sets up the 'crude display' however, she can't help but draw a smily face on Thulmaga with some of the mud they have on hand. Oh well, she tried!
"Two directions!" Anevia says, "Or three, if we include going back. They'd never expect that. A sudden thwack to the face. Maybe this is a good place to set us up a bomb?" she suggests.
Ary meanwhile, nods in agreement. "We could actually create a false trail as well. Isilme may be fast enough to do it and then catch back up to us. Do any of you have non-permanent magic to get us across quickly and safely? Rapids, especially underwater ones, can be particularly deadly."
"And I could set up the trap the direction we double back from? That way the bad guys think for sure we had to have gone that way?" Anevia continues.
Hinagiku looks at the direction Javyn is pointing at and then at the churning water, and then at Mr. Dornarnus when he suggests swimming. It seems he was indeed unlike most dwarves in that he was rasher than most of his people.
"We don't have to risk the river. I have potions of flight with me. The strongest of us could drink one and bring us all over there." Hinagiku kindly responds.
"The potions are a good idea, Hinagiku, but we should avoid using them unless we have no other alternative." Remembering that Xanderghul kept overland flight up on himself, and that he could in theory cast floating disk, she turns to him. "Xanderghul, is your flight spell still up? Could you ferry us over on a floating disk?"
"If not, we will go with your plan," she adds, looking back to Hinagiku.
"I could," he admits, floating idly around. "But, I have to ask, why is it my job to make up for your inadequacies? I have powers saved in reserve for emergency situations. Did you neglect to do that?" He picks a bit of dirt out of one diamond nail. "What would you do if I weren't here at all?"
As if to illustrate his point, he begins to float over to the other side of the river. "Dornanus says he can make it! Wait there, I'll go figure out if it's safe while you discuss what to do without me."
Xanderghul floats off and out of sight for a moment, before reappearing within the illumination provided by Javyn along the overhead archway.
The archway above the river leads down two directions, to the right and to the left. The left tunnel bends sharply to the lefthand side, so it is hard to see very far down it. The right tunnel is pretty much a straight path. It appears empty.
There are faint scratches along the floor and walls of these new tunnels left by long, jagged claws. Based on your research into the Darklands prior to leaving on this adventure, you think the most probable cause is a small tribe of troglodytes.
Troglodytes are a primitive, feral, reptilian race. They only speak very stilted draconic. They are closer to beasts than people, and are exceptionally difficult to reason with, as they possess intellect akin to humanoid children.
When Xanderghul returns, he mentions, "I didn't see anything over there, just two paths. How long do you figure we have until the duergar catch up with us?"
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Ehren rolls his eyes, finding it strange that the wizard can take pride in being both useful and useless at the same time. As he flies away to scout ahead, the druid takes a closer look at the river, trying to estimate how wide it is. If the point is to make it at least somewhat obvious what direction they headed in, he has a few ways to accomplish that.
"We do not know for certain that they are pursuing us," Ehren points out when Xanderghul returns, eyeing the direction they came from. As far as he could tell, doubling back was not an option. "Let alone how far behind us they may be. But if we delay too long, we might find out the hard way."
"We're meant to be leading them on a chase, right? Losing them here at the river might end that possibility," says Xanderghul. "And this is a great obstacle. No army will be able to negotiate this as easily as we can. Could we try and recuperate here? I bet if we do, we could destroy another army easily, and if we're caught, we can use the potions to quickly cross."
Ehren quickly judges the river to be at least a hundred feet across.
The river is one hundred and twenty feet across, and you would guess it to be at least fifty feet deep. The rapids course downstream towards the archway.
Dornarnus shrugs at Xanderghul. "Who knows? Depends how far away the next group of guards was, what sorts o' disgusting verminous mounts they got,'n so on." He leans against the wall, pulls out a stone, and starts sharpening his axeblade. "I'd welcome the opportunity tae offer prayer unto the Forge-Fire in the meantime. Mine is a soul always ready for battle!"
Javyn, on the other hand, winces somewhat at the suggestion. "I have never been over fond of tempting fate," he says, his voice slow and patient. "Nor of unnecessary violence. This tunnel is long, straight, and narrow. The duergar will see us before we see them. I am not certain whom in this scenario would be the hunter, and whom, the prey."
He kneels, extending an open palm to the ground. A small lizard scampers out from under his sleeve, then darts up and along the wall. Javyn stands back up and continues. "Perhaps when confronted with such an obstacle while pursuing us, they will simply turn back. Or at the very least it could buy us more time."
"Yes, if he takes the time to take off all of his armor... as someone who wears it, I don't think that's really an option we should choose. We may not even have time for him to get it completely off." Ary says, shaking her head. "We could attempt to recover, but I don't think we have the time, nor should we press our luck for the resources. If we're going to recuperate, we should do so on the other end of the river, where we can see them coming, not where we have no choice but to fight." Ary continues, shaking her head. "I think we absolutely should hurry across at the very least. I'm willing to drink a potion and cross with others. Maybe we have some other spell as well, though?" she pauses. "Definitely, I'm open to the option of me just carrying people. Maybe if I drank a potion and you enlarged me it wouldn't even take more than two or three trips?" she suggests.
It is more difficult to determine the exact size of the river than it would be on the surface, but with Ary's assistance, Ehren is able to come up with a fairly accurate guess. Unfortunately, the numbers are not exactly encouraging.
"A hair too wide to bridge the gap, and far too deep to ford, even with control water," he thinks aloud, kneeling by the river's edge. He decides not to agonize over the details - not when Hinagiku has already suggested a simple, conveniently bottled solution. "I believe Hinagiku and Ary have the right idea. A single potion should do the trick. Even if it takes more than three trips, you should have all the time you need to fly us all across. Then we could move on, with plenty of power to spare."
"Well, given that you fell on your ass, stunned, during the last fight, I'm going to go with 'we would be doing about the same'," she quips, "Probably better since we wouldn't have had to deal with the giant wall of fire between us and those we were trying to save. But please, do tell us more about how you do all the work around here." Isilme rolls her eyes to properly punctuate the statement.
"I don't believe we need to lead them any further at this point. If several hours of travel back won't deter them we can still beat them back to the village. I agree with Ary that we don't have the time to deal with armor or resting."
While she was willing to brook his egotism from time to time, and it occasionally was even entertaining, his whining about having to magic things as a wizard was simply too much.
"If you won't use your magic to aid the group, then Hinagiku's plan to use a potion will accomplish the same thing. I promise to keep in mind going forward that you cannot be counted upon, and reserve additional spells to account for that, Xanderghul."
Turning to Hinagiku and Ary, she adds "Lets be off then?"
Holding at least one person off of each arm, Ary is able to carry the entire group down the river and up onto the overhanging archway in very little time.
There are long, thin claw marks along the ground and walls, left by creatures walking up and down these tunnels repeatedly.
You think the most probable cause is a small tribe of troglodytes.
Troglodytes are a primitive, feral, reptilian race. They only speak very stilted draconic. They are closer to beasts than people, and are exceptionally difficult to reason with, as they possess intellect akin to small humanoid children.
Javyn tilts his head back and sniffs the air. "I don't smell anything too concerning down either passage. Now, does anyone have any good ideas as to how to hide our tracks while luring them down the opposite passage?"
"Look at these claw marks," Isilme says, crouching down. "Any idea what caused this?" She looks to the rest of the group, at a loss for what it might be.
"As for luring them down the other tunnel, I am not sure. Perhaps the best bet would be to clean our tracks here so there's no indication of the direction we went."
"We can clear our tracks on both the path we take... and then present a false trail down the other path." Ary says as she looks over the scratch marks. "I'm not sure... it's obviously some kind of scarring along the walls, not naturally made -"
"'Trogs, boss. A book we bought for Sana to read her bedtime stories had trogs in it. They're like... pre-kobolds. They mostly live under the beds of bad kids, but they like to mark up their territories... not super smart. I looked them up after I burned the book. Sana doesn't have any under her bed, I've checked loads of times." she says, nonplussed. She affects a high-pitched squeaky voice as she continues. "They talk like this, and only speak brokenly when they do."
"Ah... good." Ary says giving Anevia a side eye with a raised brow. "I could cover our tracks, probably. It's... something I'd be able to do up top. Does anyone have a way to speed me up, so I can linger behind and do so while you guys press on? I can make a show of sweeping my trail badly in one direction, and then try to sweep it a bit better in the other. It... shouldn't take long. A few minutes of it will buy us much more in the long term, I think."
"You can fly, boss. No need to even double back on the footprints thing" Anevia mentions, still using the screechy voice.
"Oh! That's a good point. If Xanderghul and I go that way, we can fly back quickly and rejoin you all. Then we can disguise this trail to make it a bit more confusing."