Vannah had been trudging along with the slow and steady dwarves easily enough, lost in her own world ... or something. It was a little hard to tell with Oracles sometimes. She peeks around the packs of the dwarves when they inevitably slow down, and spots the wheel. Then she darts forward to look at it, curious.
When Vannah darts forward, Talas blinks. "Vannah! Come back here-"
Right, she can't hear him. Talas mutters some Elven words-- pleasant enough on the ears, though for those who speak the language it's less so.
"Sairaat vettä ja paholaisen paska..."
He darts after Vannah, reaching out to grab the halfling's shoulder and intending to pull her back for a long, slow, written-out lecture on not running ahead into suspicious situations. He only hopes that this is only a harmless wheel, and not a trap of some sort to teach the lesson in a painful fashion. With the hand not reaching for Vannah, he whips his walking stick up as if it were a sword instead, gray eyes scanning the path for trouble.
"This isn't the time to be playing with debris we find along the way," Baird grumped, following Talas after Vannah, though with less concern of a trap. His eyes flicked around them (and above them!), looking for any ambushers.
"If there's a wheel here, there must be a wagon missing it nearby," he said with a frown. "Could be it would be worth looking."
Kurth looks around but doesn't really see anything unusual other than the wheel.
"Someone out there could be lost or in danger. We should definitely take a moment to look."
Boreyn looks at the wagon wheel with interest as well, then looking around as the others seem to look out for trouble as well.
"Be most careful guys, I'm not sure myself what we could encounter here. Keep your eyes and ears open."
Staring out at the world through the tinted crystal lenses of Legion's helmet visor, Imperia's vision is particularly attuned to spotting threats. As she moves forward to stand a few yards from the others, she scans the surrounding tunnel for an ambush.
"It could also be a trap."
Legion holds no weapon, but the armor's powerful fists are as big and solid as a blacksmith's hammer, and Imperia raises those fists to be ready for a sudden attack.
Vannah runs towards the wheel, with Talas close behind, and for a moment as she approaches, the entire Underdark seems to hold its breath. The quick-footed Elf manages to catch her before she can touch it, however, and from where they stand close to it, the two can see that it is not made out of wood, as one might expect, but rather, the stalk of what must have been a rather large mushroom.
The high embankments on other side do seem ideal for an ambush, and the eyes of everyone dart around the cavern, in preparation for an attack. Barely a moment, that feels like a lifetime, passes once Baird suggesting that there might be more here than a wheel when both Talas and Imperia spot to the north what seems to be more of the same mushroom material. Darkness and a cluster of stalagmites hide the size and form of the object.
"We should investigate that. I don't want to be looking over my shoulder."
He casts light on his shield and moves with any others who come with him.
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Imperial points at the collection of strange mushroom materia further down the passage. "There's more of it over there."
Once he has his hand on Vannah's shoulder, Talas exhales in slight relief. He makes the terse but universal gesture of Stop!, palm outstretched, then steps in front of her to scrutinize the mushroom stalk.
"Not a wheel after all! But this must have come from an enormous specimen of the agaric family..."
He squints further ahead to the north, nodding at Impiera's words. "One moment."
A few murmured words of Elven, and the bluish lights of the night before are in his hand. Talas sends them forward, drifting in mid-air towards the thick stalagmites and the dim shape of the object.
"Hard to identify in this light Talas, even though your lights help."
Boreyn says as he stares through the lightly illuminated darkness at the fungus himself.
Boreyn grabs his crossbow and aim in the general direction of the fungus.
"Get your weapons close everyone, perhaps this fungus lures us just like a venus fly trap would."
Imperia follows Talas's lights to inspect the other mass of mushroom-stuff.
Baird squinted as his vision went from darksight to full color with the introduction of Talas' lights. With the others gathered around the fungi to the north, though, it was hard to see what they were looking at.
"Come, Master Talas. Let this oversized lunch be and let's gather together again," he said, misliking being separated from the others. If there was an ambush, splitting them up would be ideal for their attackers. To encourage the elf to move along, he nudged Vannah and pointed at where the others were looking.
Although Talas cannot identify the type of mushroom - it is unlike anything he has seen before - he can confirm that its size would be quite remarkable, roughly the size of a tree, and that it doesn't seem to be poisonous. Deciding that there would be time later to experiment with it, he leaves it behind for the moment.
With the lights from Talas and Kurth's shield guiding the way, the group slowly moves up the embankment towards the mushroomed object. Talas keeps a hand on Vannah's shoulder as they walk, refusing to let her charge ahead as she might be inclined to do. As the group approaches it,
As they approach it, a number of things become apparent rather quickly. The structure is indeed a wagon of sorts - or rather, was a wagon, since it has been partially destroyed. Unlike what they might expect, it has been constructed from mushroom rather than wood. Boreyn and Vannah are quick to notice that there seems to be quite a lot of dried blood on the driver's seat, while Baird discovers several bits of webbing clinging to parts of the wreck.
The Dwarvish voices ring out in the open chamber, but Imperia is the only one to hear something else - the familiar clang of metal against rock. Narrowing her eyes, she can make out a small figure, some distance away, crouching behind a stalagmite, watching the investigation with some curiosity. Imperia cannot make out much more than a silhouette, but whatever it is seems ready to run away.
Imperia holds up her- Legion's- hands, showing she holds no weapons, and takes a few steps in the direction of the stalagmite. "Hello? Are you a survivor of whatever happened here? We won't hurt you." She speaks in Undercommon, having learned the language from her grandfather.
"Someone out there?" Kurth asked Imperia.
"Hello," he said in Common. "We don't mean you any harm. Come on out."
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Vannah was content to trail quietly after Talas, meek enough. Her own glowing lights simply burst from a flick of her fingers - no sound required. She stayed behind the elf (since he seemed to want her there) and peeked around his legs as the group addressed the moving ... thing.
Since she can't hear the converstion(?) She turned her eyes around to look at the wagon after a moment, trusting her companions to handle talking.
"Not poisonous but certainly enormous," Talas mutters, and cuts a small sliver of the fungus to preserve it and study it later-- in better light.
"What is it?" he whispers quietly when Imperia calls out her greeting in a tongue he doesn't know. He rummages for his spellbook meanwhile, though keeping his walking stick close at hand.
Imperia turns her head a little to whisper back over her shoulder in Common but doesn't look away from the stalagmite for fear of losing the barely-seen figure. "I heard something over by that stalagmite. It looks to me like somebody's hiding behind it, ready to run away. I don't want to spook them."
"Words are cheap in the dark, where lying eyes may hide." a woman's voice rings back in Undercommon. Straining their eyes, they can make out that she is a small Svirfneblin, one of the deep Gnomes. "Whom do you serve?"
Baird scratched his chin thoughtfully, trying to place something about the svirfneblin.
"We serve the memory of our ancestors, and no other!" he proclaimed. "The real question is, whom do you serve?"
Imperia looks over at Baird when he responds, surprised he speaks the language. She snorts and shakes her head as she looks back in the direction of the voice. "I serve myself. My family, maybe, when I'm not fighting with my mom." She gestures at the rest of her group. "For now I'm helping them look for something they lost, but I wouldn't say I serve anybody. We're, uh, not from around here. You may have noticed."
Talas apparently knows all about the religious habits, flora and fauna, geographical locations, and deep-down-dark creatures associated with the svirnefblin.
"Those who have said we serve ourselves are correct," he adds in his lilting voice. "Or that we serve the memory of the dwarves. Either would be accurate as to my personal purpose here. I am named Talas Arduinn: will you give us a name in turn, deep-dweller?"
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Boreyn looks at the deep gnome with raised eyebrows as he hears her talk.
Don't know their language but it has similar tones and words like that of the normal Gnomish language. Perhaps she can understand some of what I tell her if I talk to her in the gnomish language.
"Like my companions have said before me, we've come here to serve the memory of the dwarves. Or perhaps the memory and dreams of those that went before us, we've got a long way to go still, would you mind helping us?"
Boreyn asks in the Gnomish tongue.
Due to the map they had been studying since leaving Drogic's home, Talas and Baird know that they're quite close to the Gnomish city of Fasturvalt - less than a day's travel. Not only is it likely that the girl and the wagon both came from there, but they find it odd that there would be an attack so close to the city itself.
All of the Dwarves know at least a little about the Svirfneblin from stories that they've heard:
Long before Dammerhall fell there were simply Dwarves - but afterwards, some Dwarves went to the surface and were absorbed primarily by human communities, and others stayed underground, shutting themselves off and calling themselves the Duergar. While their lifestyles are different, at heart they are all Dwarves.
In contrast to this, the Gnomes and Svirfneblin have been segregated for as long as anyone can remember and are quite different. While Gnomes are light-hearted, spirited creatures, their Underdark counterparts are serious, hard-working, and unfriendly. They sometimes send Caravans to the surface to trade - as several materials are hard to get underground, but these trips are infrequent and they gnomes rarely linger longer than absolutely necessary.
With Boreyn and Drogic's plan to take this route through the Underdark, he learned what he could of Fasturvalt ahead of time. Talas knows of the city as well, from his interest in the Underdark that begins with Dammerhall and spreads over everything.
Fasturvalt has been in the same family for hundreds of years, originally established by the House of Geidne. The town itself was founded in a cavern rich with fine marble, and because of it, it always lived in the shadow of the Drow threat. Due to the distance and size of the town, it was never much of a priority. About 50 years ago, the Drow decided it was time to take Fasturvalt.
Lord Geiri managed to cleverly cut a deal with the Drow, managing against all odds to trade them some stone for peace. This has made him basically a hero of the Underdark, and he has since been called "Lord Geiri Knows-No-Fear".
Most of the responses yield no response, until Baird's, which causes the girl to laugh lightly as she steps forward from the shadows. "You've got spunk. I serve me."
"Undercommon, Dwarven, Gnomish. My, aren't you the prepared group." She replies.
"Seein' as how y'aren't with the Skis'raal, and y'aren't Drow, sure." She replies with a shrug. She seems a bit young, and kind of dodgy, and it doesn't go unnoticed that she avoids most of the direct questions. "Name's Iverna Already-Has-Your-Knife, friend's call me Knivy Ivy."
"The drow I've heard tales of, right enough, but who are the Skis'raal?" Baird asked. "And this wagon - what happened?" While he hadn't reached for a weapon, he hadn't yet ruled out that Knivy Ivy was a bandit, and there might be more nearby... but it was possible that she was just an innocent, so he tried to keep his healthy dose of paranoia in check.
It was just coincidence that he also had a quick look around while the gnome was introducing herself.
Vannah cottons on that something is happening once the girl comes out into the light a bit.
Then she smiles at her. Still hiding behind Talas' leg, for the most part.
Talas frowns to himself, eying the wagon again. This should be safe enough traveling, this close to Fasturvalt... when Baird asks what happened, he puts word to Talas's thoughts for him.
"Aye, we would much like to know what happened to this caravan... and whether that threat is still out there. Are you hurt? Do you need assistance, Miss Iverna?"
Imperia sighs as none of the men introduce themselves in return. "I'm Imperia, Ivy. Glad to meet you." She does nod, though, at the question of the caravan. "Did you survive whatever happened here?"
"Right right, I totally forgot my manners. Excuse me miss Ivy, it's the age see, I'm getting forgetful from time to time. Well met, I am Boreyn Steelhymn and these are my companions on our trip underground again. The elf is called Talas Arduinn, the two younger dwarves are Baird and Kurth Silvermug and the halfling near talas is called Vannah, but she doesn't talk much."
"My, ya really are new here." She replies, walking up to the group. She gestures to bits of webbing still stuck to the wagon. "Skis'raal are giant spiders live here in the Underdark. Mostly in the Fungal Jungle, but every now and then they branch out."
"As to what happened: Gunther hired me as a scout for his little caravan expedition. But it was so fast. Two Skis'raal dropped down from the ceilings above us." She gestured up to the dark ceiling. It was easy to see how a creature could hide up there, between the stalactites and shadows. "I managed to get away in the chaos and hide, but they caught the others, alive a'course, and killed Gunther." She shakes her head. "Still don't know why."
Baird knelt to examine the scuffs on the ground, raising his head to follow the trail off into the dark. "Something big dragged off that way," he confirmed, dusting off his hands as he stood. "Spiders, eh? Maybe they were just getting rid of the greatest threat to their mealtime?"
Kurth nods along with Ivy's story feeling saddened by her loss.
When Baird mentions the spiders trail, he says, "We should follow it. See if we can avenge her friends."
Imperia snorts as she examines the floor. "So what was this Gunther like? You don't seem too broken up about him."
After a moment, she points out the trail. "Went off that way, didn't it? We could probably track it."
"It's definitely big alright, though I'm a bit rusty in recognising tracks and match them with the animals. More of a bookwurm than a practical means of knowledge."
Boreyn looks to Ivy, then to Kurth and nods.
"Aye we might be able to even save her friends, seeing as the spiders captured them alive. They usually keep a small hoard of captured prey, might be they're not eaten yet."
Talas glances up briefly to the ceiling at the words of terrible spiders, then down to the scuffed trail.
"Hmmm... yes, I suppose we could track that. I wonder what made it," he murmurs. "A spider doesn't leave a track like that-- although if it was dragging bodies, I could see it. Well? Are we diverting from our mission for thrilling heroics, my friends?"
Though the elf's tone is dryly sardonic, there's a glint in his eye, and the way he gestures with his walking stick, suggests he might secretly want to do just that.
Baird grunted; he knew that look in Talas' eye. He completely over-thought the reason for it, though. Master Talas is right - we could use allies down here, once our city is freed.
Twirling his axe with one hand, he slapped its haft into his other hand and smiled. "Thrilling heroics come naturally to dwarves! I say we help Iverna's companions out! A few less vermin down here is never a bad thing, either."
The reaction by the others catches Ivy off-guard, since she had not asked for their help, and she looks at them shocked for a moment before composing herself. "Well, if we hurry, a few of them may yet survive."
With Baird leading the way, she falls into step with the others. "The big thing is a lizard," she explains, "Used it to pull the wagon. With any luck they'll be feeding on that 'stead of the others."
Imperia's question clearly puts her on the defensive. "Lotta people die in the dark." She explains in a huff. "Ain't expectin' any to cry over me. Gunther weren't like a lot of the others. He was a tough cookie, smart. Did me a favour bringing me along." She shakes her head, "Still can't figure what happened. But, least I can do is make sure his wife gets back his sword."
"Aye, Imperia. Don't be so harsh. We all deal with death differently."
Kurth touched his hand fingers to his holy symbol and prayed.
"Oh, Torag, guide your servant."
Imperia grunts at Ivy's stoic reply. "I damn well expect people to cry over me if I never come back from this trip." She shakes her head. "So let's go see if we can keep some other families from crying today."
When Talas gestures at the tracks, Vannah scoots away from his leg to look at them too, then off into the darkness where they lead.
Looking back at the others, she can tell that they're going to go. She smiled, pointing down after the tracks.
Ivy looks sideways at Imperia, but surprisingly doesn't make a snarky response. Instead she simply nods. The group travels in silence for a short while, moving along the Gnome King's Highway, following the tracks left by the spiders.
Within a few minutes of walking, it's clear that several things can be seen about the girl. She's perceptive, quick-moving, and seems rather independent, though it also may be masking something else. As appearances go, she's rather attractive for a deep gnome, with pale brown/grey skin and large blue eyes.
After a fashion, Ivy speaks. "So, what brings ya down here? I know ya said honouring the Dwarven memories, but so far as I'm aware, Dwarves are alive and well, a'couple hundred miles that way." She points to a direction that may well be East, though underground it's considerably more difficult to tell.