Talas moves along the track with a certain restlessness that belies his demeanor as serious, elder scholar until now. Might they actually see action now? He knows he shouldn't hope for it, but-- it's so tempting, after so long spent in libraries in research...
"The memories of how the dwarves were centuries ago, let us say," he says with a grandiose gesture of his walking stick. "Back when the surface and the deeps were not so... separated. But please, what do you know of the dwarves who dwell there now? Little news of them reaches the top world. Your expertise would be greatly appreciated."
"Aye what my friend says is true. We've travelled here to see what has become of the old dwarven city of Dammerhall, the time when dwarves above and below were the same. I'm guessing with the dwarves you know, that you mean the Duergar?"
Boreyn responds to Ivy, plucking his own gray beard as he ponders the ways the duergar might have actually changed from other dwarves or how much they have stayed similar to them.
Baird listened to the conversation with half an ear, the greater part of his concentration taken with tracking and making sure they didn't walk into an ambush. He nodded at Talas and Boreyn's words, though he didn't add anything more.
Imperia focuses on the tunnels around them as the others talk. She, perhaps surprisingly, does't say anything about not caring about the memories of a bunch of long-dead ancestors.
"Duergar." She replies, with a nod. "I've heard 'em called that before. Ain't likely I know much more'n you do. The Duergar have kept to themselves, no trade, no communication. Completely shut off. I seen a few of their explorers over the years, but even they never wanted to talk neither. Always steered clear as if no one else existed." She shrugs. "The Undardark is a big place, with a lot of things not understood, but few as incomprehensible as these Duergar."
With a pause, she looks off into the distance for a moment. "I suppose it can't hurt to tell you now that he's gone. Things aren't great back at Fasturvalt." She confesses. "Gunther, he was trying to scout out some pockets of our people who'd survived on their own, in the hopes that they'd come back. I didn't expect it would work, and told him so. This entire area was once Svirfneblin communities, but that was so long ago. Most are gone now."
"Anyway, Gunther, he was doin' me a favour takin' me out as it was, but he still listened. Wasn't like a lot of others. We agreed that if we couldn't find any other Svirfneblin, then we would go to Kraggodan and ask the Duergar for help."
She cocks her head. "How much do you know about Lord Geirni?"
"Lord Geirni? We'd heard Fasturvalt was led by Lord Geiri."
Talas listens with a frown, his brows delicately furrowed.
"As Imperia says: the name Geirni is, I fear, unknown to us... or at least to me. Please, do go on."
Vannah peers out from behind Talas. Nope, still talking. The little oracle finally emerged, since their conversant doesn't appear dangerous (at the moment).
She went to go poke at the piece of mushroom wagon curiously.
Ivy stops dead as the others express a lack of knowledge in Geirni. "Geirni's the son." She explains, taking on a tone that suggests she does not care for him at all. Clarifying this she says, "The boy's a right idiot."
"Listen," She begins. "I could get in a lot of trouble for sayin' so, but I weren't the only one who thought it. Gunther's entire decision to search for help was because of Geirni. Hell, if it weren't Skis'raal who attacked us, I might have reason to think the dangfool had it arranged."
She shakes her head with a sigh. "Forget it, it ain't your concern. We save the others, then we all go our separate ways. They go back to Fasturvalt, I go on to Kraggodan, and you go save the memory of the Dwarves."
Kurth fidgets as his hand reaches for the warhammer on his belt. He didn't like not having a weapon in his hand. But in the end he knew it was better for him to keep a hand free to cast his magic.
He clutched his holy symbol instead.
"We'll help ye find yer folk, don't worry. And then we can all be on our way."
"We'll probably want to stop somewhere to get updated information- like this thing with Geirni- and resupply. How far is Kraggodan from here?"
"We will indeed help ya Ivy, the trouble you have with Geirni may not be of our concern, but if he should trouble us on our way to help you you will find an ally in us."
"Geirni must have come only quite recently to power, 3 years ago at the most." Boreyn says gruffly while plucking on his beard.
"Tell me, do you think you can get to Kraggodan by yourself Ivy? If a group of warriors cannot manage the trip, wouldn't you need some extra protection yourself?"
Talas nods slowly in corroboration with Boreyn's words, tapping his fingers absently against the head of his walking stick.
"Lord Geiri has passed, then? How... unfortunate," Talas frowns. "Was it merely age?"
While he had nothing against helping Ivy while on their way, and potentially gaining an ally in the Azathyr to boot, Baird frowned at the notion of acting as an escort rather than forging on toward their shared dream of greatness.
Glancing up from the trail he was following, he asked with studied casualness, "Where does this Kraggodan lie?"
Talas would know his reason for asking, but Baird felt that his smooth entry into the discussion was diplomacy at its finest. After all, he hadn't come right out and said that playing escort was a waste of their time.
The group continues following the trail, their conversations in the dark becoming more comfortable and familiar, enough so that Ivy snorts at the implication that she needs help getting to Kraggodan. "Of that group of warriors, I'm the only to survive the Skis'raal attack." She boasts. "I know the Underdark better than most. Without pack animals, without others, I can travel faster, and I can stay in the shadows." With a shrug, she finishes. "No guarantee that they'll speak with me, but I reckon I should try all the same. Feel like I owe it to Gunther, I guess."
The questions about Geiri and Geirni give her pause, though. "... I don't believe he will cause any problems for you. There's little beyond the walls of Fastruvalt that he cares about." She chuckles darkly, [b]"Our people become more like the dangfool Duergar all the time." Remembering her crowd, she coughs quietly. "Sorry."
"As far as Geiri, aye, it was little over a year ago. And your question, Master Elf, is one I ask myself often. Ain't able to prove a bit, since they don't let lowly scouts like me in to see the bodies of kings, but I suspect he was poisoned." She leads them to a wall, where the trail apparently stops. Knivy Ivy blinks at the trail's sudden ending. Imperia, Vannah, and Baird all notice, however, that about 20 feet up, in an area already rather drenched in darkness, there's a hole in the side of the wall.
Vannah helpfully points towards the hole in the wall, nodding a bit enthusiastically, though its hard to say.
Boreyn notices Vannah's movements and looks down slightly at her.
"What's the matter Vannah?" It takes him a moment for him to see the hole she's pointing out.
"Aha, I see now. Vannah's seen a hole in the wall everyone. Perhaps a way through?"
Talas squints, not quite able to see what's got attention, until Boreyn too points it out.
"Hum! Are we to climb up there like spiders ourselves?" he says with a tut of disapproval for the idea. With a gesture and a murmured Elven word, he sends a ball of purplish light floating up to gloomy corner, to see if he can make it anything more.
He files away the thoughts of poison... for now.
"You elves, always shining light on everything," Baird snorted in amused exasperation. "If they can see it, then they know we're coming. Then again, bringing them out to us is probably a better option than climbing up to them."
He looked around for some easier option to reach the hole than climbing, all the same - and some sign of how many they might face.
Imperia grunts at Baird's comment, the sound echoing oddly out of her heavy armor. "Yeah, it would be better. I'm not climbing anything steeper than stairs in this thing."
"Oh please, it's not like we were remotely quiet," Talas sniffs disdainfully at Baird pointing out that his light is not exactly discreet. He makes the light dance back and forth before the hole a few times, hoping he does draw something out, but if nothing comes...
"I got a rope and a grappling hook. Climbing wouldn't be too hard, if we take our time. It might also be good to get into the practice of it. Pretty sure this won't be the last time we'll need to scale something. Still let's let our friend do his trick with the lights and see if we don't fish something out first."
-Posted with Wayfinder
The opening is roughly 15 feet tall by 10 feet wide. Anyone in the group can move further back as Talas's lights shine in the hole, but they cannot see very far within due to the angle. It seems likely that it leads to a passage of sorts. The light does not seem to be drawing any kind of attention.
Talas grimaces. "If Calistria had meant me to climb she would have made me a monkey," he mutters. "Oh, very well, if we must... Baird, the rope...?"
Talas helps knot the rope to be thrown up, trusting to someone else to produce a grappling hook. Ultimately, with rope knotted and hook tossed, he offers to be the first to shimmy up-- his eagerness to taste a bit of risk at odds with his complaining.
Imperia grunts doubtfully. "I'd be happy to be first, if you think that rope will hold Legion." It's impossible to see her expression through the armor's faceplate but it's easy to hear the skeptical tone in her voice.
"I'll come up fourth, I'm not that strong of a climber, but my vision is still excellent in the dark." Boreyn says as he looks to Vannah for a second.
"Forget about that, take Vannah up first before me. Baird and I will climb up as the last two. You don't mind do you Baird?"
Boreyn taps Vannah on her shoulder and motions in broken hand gestures that she should climb up before him and Baird.
Baird couldn't help giving Talas a worried look, but he acquiesced to the older dwarf's request. He watched Legion make the ascent with a barely disguised blend of skepticism and looking impressed.
"Let me through, I can look farther down the tunnel," he grumped once he was up, pushing to stand in front of Talas in case anything nasty had a hankering for elf. Drawing his axe, he peered into the darkness, not forgetting to scan the ceiling for nasty big crawlers.
"No, we should very much stay together," Talas says to Kurth. He heads up the rope next, climbing cautiously-- it's a long long time since he climbed a tree, or anything at all, really, and the long decades of time in a library have weakened his arms somewhat.
After taking a look down the tunnel, Imperia turns to help up those who follow her up the rope.
Vannah goes scrambling after them. She works slowly up after Imperia, keeping an eye behind them as she climbs.
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Largely ignoring the deliberation, Ivy moves rapidly up the secured rope, doing her best to help those up who begin their climbs after her. Taking their time and ensuring safety above all, the group climbs one by one up the rope.
Arriving at the top, they find themselves on a rocky landing with a tunnel in front of them. Webs hang from every surface imaginable, and runes can be seen behind a few strands.
Moving through the tunnel, they follow its passages to the East, which opens into a large chamber, and then curves around to the North. They pass through the winding tunnels, coming to a cavernous lair. Blood pools under a hanging corpse. Upon seeing it, Ivy hisses that it is Sheriff Gunther. The group can see from here how his throat is slit - quickly and methodically. Bits of webbing cling to his body from where he was dragged, but no effort was made to web him up. In a different manner entirely, six other gnome-sized bundles of web can also be seen hanging from the ceiling. A few sound to be letting out disoriented and worried groans, surprising any who may have thought them dead. "They like them alive." Ivy hisses, drawing her dagger.
From a darkened corner of the room, 8 blood-red eyes shine out pure hatred. As the sound of Skis'Raal chittering fills the air, a large white-grey spider moves slowly towards the group, staring at them as if waiting for an explanation.
"Oh, this is interesting, one moment!" Talas calls as he catches sight of the runes. He calls his little lights into existence to look at them more closely. "Ah, very obscure.... let me see now.... ah yes, oh, this is very cheerful: 'The lair of Skethyk and Azaak, outcast but unbroken. All others who enter are food.' ...lovely."
He walks more carefully down the tunnel, frowning at the thought of what my lurk ahead.
Seeing the monstrous spider ahead, Talas draws his rapier with a flourish. "I know not whether you are Skethyk or Azaak, you many-legged horror, but yield your prisoners or be destroyed!"
Adventure! Adventure has found them at last! Talas mutters a quick word of protection beneath his breath after his rather daring challenge. His rapier shimmers with a pale green light.
Boreyn looks at the runes himself and nods ina greement to Talas's accurate description.
"Right you are, I don't think we want to witness either of them yet."
Wehen the group notices the captive gnomes and the eyes shine out of the dark, Boreyn grumbles. "Now that changes things. I guess we'll need to kill this bugger to free these ppor gnomes."
Boreyn rasps with his voice and suddenly begins calling out and singing to his allies with a booming voice.
"We dwarves of old came anew, to this place of darkness. Our deeds of old will sound anew when we aid those that are helpless. Gnomish friends will soon be freed, from the clutches of the Spider-King. Run! Run Spider-King or we'll begin your slaying."
Imperia quickly shuts the visor of her Legion suit with a solid clank. "I think we should begin the slaying now." She heads directly toward the red eyes, flipping a switch inset on the exterior of the armor as she does. A faint, shimmering blue field springs into being a scant inch above the dark metal.
"Bah! Never did like spiders. Almost as bad as bats, if you ask me."
Kurth then cast a spell on himself, filling him with the blessings of Torag. He then drew his warhammer.
"Come and get it, you eight -legged freaks. Plenty for all."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Baird, whose axe had been out the whole time they had crept through the web-filled tunnel, didn't waste time with formalities. He charged straight at the spider, seemingly uncaring of whether it might be a trap.
"IN TORAG'S NAME!"
Boreyn charges ahead towards the pale-white spider, with Ivy close behind. The webbed gnomes dangling from above twist as if trying to offer encouragement - but it's nothing compared to how Boreyn's booming voice makes them feel.
The spider skitters forward to meet Baird and Knivy Ivy head on. Using the creature's momentum against it, Baird swings up his axe, slicing through part of the spider's abdomen. It lets out an awful screech, trying to retaliate and retreat at the same time - missing a bite against Baird but successfully dodging Ivy's dagger.
Imperia lumbers towards the creature like a tank in her armoured suit, preparing to take a swing, while Talas and Kurth ready their weapons, standing to offer protection to Vannah and Boreyn.
Boreyn continues singing in his booming voice and makes sure he keeps his distance and his shield up.
Baird whirled his axe in his hand and grinned fiercely, bringing it around in the same motion to chop at the spider again, hoping to lop off a leg or two, or plant his axe in its head.
Imperia stomps in on Kurth's heels, swinging one of Legion's immense metal fists at the same spider as the cleric.
Now that his protections are in place, Talas darts forward to join in. Battle! At long last! It's been sixty-something years since he last had a real foe to stab at...!
It's a sure strike. As he hits, Talas cries out in his lilting native tongue: "Ai, jos kusipääs vuonna Kyonin voisi nähdä tämän!!" It's all very stirring.
Vannah thinks that the dwarves more or less have this down. She hides in the back by Boreyn, her big eyes peering around the singing dwarf at the ongoing fight. Not very helpful.
The large spider manages to avoid the attacks of both Baird and Imperia, but loses its footing during the ruthless onslaught, allowing Kurth and then Talas to get in devastating attacks. Even Knivy Ivy manages to get an attack in this time, due to the group simply swarming the creature. It tries to bite back at Talas, but in vain, as it is simply overwhelmed.
Vannah notices a shadow, and looks up to see a second spider, descending on both herself and Boreyn (who seems unaware of it).
Talas takes a short adjusting step in the space of the cavern, trying to surround the spider with his staunch dwarven allies and attack it from all sides.