Edie has a flashback...
...it was the early '90s. She was a different person then. Much more worried about finding a job, any job... and then Waco happened. It rocked her worldview, and left a sour feeling in her soul -- people should be allowed to do a religion, but... that wasn't a religion, it was a cult. Not just the media saying so -- the documentation found on the site by the fedgov after... She remembers the spells, the bow fire, and then the fireball that nearly consumed the golem sent to end the siege as well as most of the cultiststs... all played out on scryvision...
The tiefling shakes a bit as she gets the thousand-yard stare. "They follow the Sun. Fire would be the way they'd do it. We've got to get in there tonight. Are there any backdoors? Any tunnels? Large trees that haven't been turned into trebuchet?"
The orc looks at one of his fellows, who shrugs. "Might want to talk to Grongar. The walls are pretty new, so he didn't have to worry about that back in the day, but the elf chick still needed to sneak out without being seen, so I'd guess they have, like, somethin', right?"
The fatherly orc looks up at the party from his seat (although, technically, he's still a head taller than Klyto, even sitting down). "Secret entrances? We looked around, but we didn't see any. I always met Mahurra's mother"-- he says "mother" with incredible irritation-- [b]"in the woods, over... 'round there."
He gestures toward the right of the wall, toward a treeline some hundred yards away.
"More trees back then," he admits, "'cuz we made some into trebuchets. Thought it might be, uh. What'sawordforit. Cathartic."
Now that he mentions it, you can see there are some stumps before the treeline starts properly.
"Wasn't, though."
Klyto finds something!
Or, well, half of something.
After stepping toward the woods, checking a few stumps, and investigating the nearby trees, he spots something written on a stump in a language he does not speak or read.
Well, as far as he can tell: the top half of the written words has been removed along with the rest of the tree.
From the ordered loopiness of the writing, it's natural to assume Elven.
You also spot a V with Grongar's name written in it.
Keeyan hears Klyto mention Bella, then notices her cursing(?) in one of the languages that he doesn't know, and just shakes his head. Why couldn't they all sit down (elves included), have a drink and discuss this!?!
Facing the orc again he nods to the depressing words. "Yeah, the courts can be a mess, especially if you don't have a lawyer that can understand the legal trickery that they use. I remember hearing about a worker's comp case.... But never mind that! Maybe they'll listen to us, and MAYBE it's just a misunderstanding. The baby is half-orc so she should know her father as well as her mother!"
Keeyan joins the search.
Bella says" I think it says there is a hidden burrow underneather here."
Keeyan, with the added benefit of Bella's guidance, spots an oval hole about five inches wide, just beside the base of the stump. It almost looks like... a handle, perhaps.
Keeyan points the hole out to the others, "I'm not sure, but maybe someone stronger than me? Or maybe there's a key or lever around here?"
Bella will curiously give it a try...
Bella gives it a tug; it doesn’t move, but she can feel that movable. Bracing herself, she gives another pull, and it swings open!
The trapdoor is about two feet across; thankfully, most of the party isn’t particularly broad, although Edie will likely need to be careful with her wings.
It goes down a short ways before going horizontal; naturally, you can’t see around the corner unless you enter the tunnel (unless one of you is carrying around a periscope).
Bella will join Klyto down in the hole.
Keeyan glances around at the orcs, shrugs and follows the others.
Edie is conciliatory to Grognar
"Elves are long-lived. Depending on how young their family felt she was, you and her may have been akin to young teens getting together -- and they may have viewed it as statutory rape but unable to do anything about it aside from blocking your parental rights. Still b&!*@##$, though, I mean, you didn't push for an abortion and you're just trying to do what's right for your kid. We'll check into this for you, we'll get it figured out, and if we can, get your kid back to you if we can." Edie offers to the mournful orc.
"And you'd think tearing things apart would be very cathartic -- I can tell you it's 'good at the time' -- but then the hangover kicks in... which is what you're feeling. Give us until at least dawn to get this sorted out, and hopefully we can do it without a lot of good people getting murdered."
Edie is still remembering the Waco situation...
"I'm probably the closest thing to a 'tank' we've got... well, Klyto.... What.... where are you.... oh. Well, s%%@. Let's do this, then."
She'll make her way down the hole.
Grongar "mm"s and nods. He seems thankful, but pessimistic.
---------------
The tunnel is... fairly plain, actually. It seems to be as simple as can be-- packed dirt on all sides, with the occasional thin root hanging down.
As the group moves forward, there doesn't seem to be much going on in the tunnel itself (aside from, y'know, a wayang, an elf, a tiefling, and a sylph normal human). The tunnel's a bit cramped-- everyone but Klyto has to slouch at least in order to move through it-- but it'll do.
After walking just long enough for the tallfolk to start getting cramps, you come upon a panel made of roughly-hewn slats of damp wood that's blocking the way forward.
The slats have a board going across it that can be gripped; it’ll have to do.
Moreover, he hears muffled voices. He’s suddenly quite glad he’s stepped up his Duolingo practice lately!
”Usually would have started by now. Maybe they’re drunk.”
”Well, of course they’re—“
”TOO drunk, I mean.”
It’s hard to gauge the distance through the “door.”
Bella moves up next to Klyto and tries to listen.
Not understanding the elven voices, Klyto's words are clear. "Good! Anybody with any common sense would hide from trebuchets!"
The conversation goes to mumbling, or perhaps the elves are too far away (probably both). Those who can understand Elven and have their pointy ears pressed against the wood hear a few snippets, though.
Well, unless a new elf by that name has joined the colony in the past twenty years.
But you're pretty sure they're talking about your mom.
Keeyan stays silent. He still doesn't understand the few words that he can hear.
Bella shrugs,"I think we should just go up...maybe with a white flag. Though somebody else should go first."
Bella sighs and goes to open the trap door and calls out in elven..."We are here to help...we coming out now. Don't Shoot!"
Edie is tagging along at the moment.
The tiefling wants to comment but it's not her family that the party is dealing with. There's scarce she can do save be ready in case things go horribly bad -- which they might, as Edie IS a bright pink spawn of some darker plane by appearances sake...
The ladies open the door and call out some more in the language that Keeyan doesn't understand. He just shrugs and follows behind everyone.
Bella announces her intentions; the sound she makes as she grabs the barrier and moves it aside masks the sound of bowstrings being drawn, but as the group turn their eyes forward, they see two elven men: tall, proud, one blond, one a light red. They look upon Bella and immediately slacken their draw, blinking in surprise.
”By the Sunset—Belladonna?” says the blond.
Seeing the business end of several arrows being relaxed, Keeyan releases the breath that he'd drawn in to cast an unknown spell.... "Bella? Care to do some introductions before we have extra holes in any of us?"
"Elveranthiras? Steve? Yes it is me. And before you ask...No I am not here to fulfilled the arrange marriage with either one of you."
”Aw,” says the red-headed Steve.
”That’s, uh, fine,” says Elveranthiras. ”Me and Jennaria are kind of...”
He fidgets, and you can see a dark, speckly mark on his neck beneath his leather armor and a ring of twisted darkwood twigs on his finger.
”So you’re here to help us protect Mahurra, then?”
Edie has concerns.
"Yes." Edie finally says after a moment of trying to parse the situation and failing miserably. Her 'gut' feeling is that they're malnourished, maybe diseased in addition to being in thrall to some infernal or daemonic power. Rather than say more and potentially blow the flimsy detente of the moment, brevity is for the best.
After all, that's kind of what they told the orcs what they were going to do, right?
Keeyan and Bella either know or notice a few things.
The first is that these elves are tanned, to an extreme degree. A doctor would probably have concerns about their risk of skin cancer. Moreover, their hair is sun-bleached, and their eyes seem damaged from the sun as well.
Regardless of this, however, they seem to have no trouble turning their heads in your direction.
Bella, of course, grew up around this; it’s a wonder she’s as pale as she is, given her childhood likely had her just as tanned.
Bella says, "Well we are here to protect Mahurra. Hopefully we can bring this to a peaceful resolution."
Bella shudders at seeing the sun damage. It took years of skin therapy to remove the damages it did to her skin.
”Cool, cool. So, she’s gonna be with your mother,” says Elveranthiras. ”Same place as always—across the bog bridge, to the right.”
He gestures.
You’ve come out in what seems to be open air; the trees are generally bigger here, and your surroundings are exactly what you might expect of a settlement in the swamp: a few planks across the wetter parts, lots of huts on stilts, and the like. Torches are lit with some frequency around the place—more than there were when Bella was young.
The indicated hut is a little larger than the others, more ornate in the doorframe. It is clear even to the rest of the party that if this is Bella’s mother’s hut, she must hold some importance in this village.
”You have any idea how cheap land is out here?”
Keeyan looks around for any damages from the siege engines. "The constant party outside the gate, and the occasional rock from their trebuchets have to hurt the resale value though...."
Bella will hesitate for a second before knocking on her mother's door.
Keeyan’s kees eyes notice that while most of the rocks have landed off of the huts—likely enough, as they’re fairly spread out—it takes a second glance to notice one of the huts is actually crushed, a hut-sized rock in its place.
A few smoldering embers still put up a lot of smoke, but nothing dangerous at present. It seems like everything’s under control for now.
At the knock, a familiar voice calls. Serene, yet firm, like a thick layer of ice on a still lake.
”I shall be with you in a moment,” she says.
A half moment passes, and the door opens a crack.
A toddler looks up at Bella, eyes locking.
Her eyes are, in fact, identical to Belladonna’s.
It’s hard to see much of her besides, but you can tell that her flesh is green and you can see a tusk jutting up from the corner of her mouth.
Edie tries not to scare the child!
The tiefling gets down on one knee so she's closer to eye-level with Grognar's kid.
"Ohmygosh look at who's so adorable! Such a nice tone to your skin and such intense eyes!" Edie gushes at the toddler, with genuine appreciation for the child's appearance -- it's probably the first time anyone's ever complimented the kid unless her parent does have a heart.
And seriously, any parent that doesn't think their child is the most adorable thing in the world -- if trying at times -- is probably a parent that shouldn't have said child.
Bella rolls her eyes at Edie a toddler elf is probably older than Edie is...wait not with orc blood.
"You must be Mahurra. I am Bella, this Edie. That is Keeyan, and that is Klyto."
Bella doesn't use baby talk...she felt it insulting when she was a toddler and refuses to use it.
The child blinks up at the two strange women. It takes her a minute before she says anything, but then:
”IS BEL-LA SHORT FOR BEL-LA-DON-NA??” she asks, in that half-shouty way that kids do.
"Why it is short for Belladonna you are a very smart young lady."
”Who is it, Sunrise?” comes Laria’s voice.
”BIG SIS IS HERE!” shout-says Mahurra.
The footsteps on the other side of the door stop for a moment. There is a sudden flurry of them as soon as that moment is gone, however, and Mahurra is shooed away from the door, which opens.
Before you stands a woman who, like the rest of the elves you’ve seen about, is heavily tanned. Her hair was likely black at one point, but is streaked with a ruddy orange, and her eyes are cloudy enough that she may very well be blind—or functionally so.
Behind her is what seems to be a one-room hut; herbs are hung up to dry beneath a thatched-roof ceiling. Two hammocks—one smaller than the other—are erected on one side of the living space around a lit fire pit; the smoke, presumably, can escape through a hole at the center of the ceiling. An ornate bow (Bella’s father’s) on a shelf beside the larger hammock.