Update 2

Romulus descends the wood slats that seem glued like a ladder to the flaky rock walls. Not wanting to look like a coward in front of the others, he forces one foot down over the other, half expecting the next wood slat to break away under his weight. Romulus focuses on sliding his foot down against the wall until he feels the next slat.

“You only have forty or fifty feet left to go, Romulus,” Stateira smirks at her mocking.

“Thanks, you stupid bitch,” Romulus thinks to himself. But before Romulus can muster a retort, he begins feeling woozy and disoriented. He stops his descent and holds tight to the slat, waiting for the feeling to go away. It doesn’t. Romulus realizes this wooziness is actually the powerful ambient magical energy of the node. He continues his descent. His discomfort with the wood slats is overtaken by a magical oppression that grows with every step downward. Romulus’ fear of falling is replaced with a mounting anxiety over the increasing magic he feels within the large cavern.

His head pounds as he descends faster, no longer focused on his fear of falling. Just as he feels that his head is about to implode, his foot touches bottom. Briefly distracted from his pounding headache, Romulus inhales a slow, deep breath. Not bothered by the musty cavern air, Romulus inhales deeply. Letting the surrounding magic into his being, his headache dissipates rapidly, and Romulus realizes that he stands in a special room.

Peering into the darkness, without even casting, Romulus snaps his fingers to create a glowing orb to provide some illumination. Nifen looks over and sees an almost malevolent look on Romulus’ face as Romulus absorbs the magic of the cavern. His magical thirst is being sated right before everyone’s eyes. Romulus continues to breathe slowly and deeply, guiding his orb to illustrate the cavern’s perimeter. Stateira and Jameyes reach the bottom while Romulus looks around the cavern. After what seems like an hour but is only a few minutes, Romulus breaks the silence, “Lady and gentlemen, I know, I feel, what we need to do to travel from this node to the next.”

Already knowing the answer, Nifen asks, “What is that, Romulus?”

“I can expend just a mild amount of magical energy, and without saying anything, I can teleport all of us to the next node,” Romulus pauses waiting for awe from his companions. Not seeing the expected reaction, Romulus declares, “Did you hear me? I can teleport all of us. And without speaking!”

“We heard you, oh great one,” Stateira says sarcastically. “So what are you waiting for?”
“Huh? Oh. We need to wait a few hours for me charge up my magical strength,” replies Romulus.

“You’ve got to kidding me. It’s a good thing we don’t have to wait for me to charge up my bow for hours before I can fire it. Or wait for Jameyes’ sword to charge up before he can swing it—although he does seem to wait for a few blows to be exchanged before he can dig himself out of his leaf-filled hole to join the battle.” Stateira chuckles at her joke and looks over at Jameyes, who looks passively back at her.

“Stateira, stop,” Nifen interjects. “You are not helping anything with making fun of everyone.”

“Oh, here comes my voice of reason with no sense of humor,” Stateira purses her lips and raises her brow.

“What in the hell is wrong with you? Is it that time of the month? Do elves have ‘that time of the month’? Your outside beauty is dwarfed by your inner bitch, and who gives you the right…” Nifen stops himself as he sees Stateira’s face drop as she fights back tears. Nifen inhales slowly and deeply to calm himself. “Look Stateira, I know this has been a couple of emotional days. It’s been tough for all of us, but especially for you and Jameyes, and we all know that Jameyes isn’t really an emotional person, so we know it’s been especially tough on you.”

“L-Look, I’m s-s-sorry,” Stateira blubbers her words. “I’ve just had a lot to deal with. I find my father, whom I haven’t seen in over twenty years. I find out I’m related to the tall hunk of a mute over there. Incidentally, Jameyes, you look a lot better now that you’ve cleaned up a bit. Jameyes looks at her quizzically and lets out a rare smile. I also find out the Elves of Yourn are not only alive and active, but they plan on sacking my home and killing everyone I’ve ever known and loved. And now we leave my father up there, and I wonder if he’ll be there when we get back. So waiting an additional eight hours is a little bothersome for me. Not to mention, we all might not be coming back since we are walking into a drow lair. It’s just a lot. Jameyes, I’m sorry,” she says as she approaches him.

“I make fun of you because I like you. And I have a lot of respect for you.” She wraps her thin arms around him to give him a hug. With one around her, Jameyes softly returns the embrace. She lets go and approaches Nifen. “Nifen, I’m sorry. You’re a good man. And we need you if we are going to survive this hell-hole.” She leans forward and gives him a kiss on the cheek before she walks over to Romulus. “And Romulus, I’m sorry. You’re a good wizard and you are only getting better. And I don’t want us to die without exchanging this first.” Stateira grabs his face and kisses him passionately. Shocked, Romulus opens his eyes wide, and as he takes in her beauty, he returns the kiss as he reaches behind her and grabs her right butt cheek with his left hand and presses her groin against his left leg.

After a full thirty second kiss, Stateira gently pulls away. “Well, I’m glad we got that over with. Now we can sit back and wait for Romulus to charge up his magic,” Stateira smiles toward Romulus. Romulus rolls his eyes and shakes his head back and forth before letting out a small grin toward Stateira.

Best laid plans of mice and men

Pasted together parts of emails:

This plan comes from all the intel we gathered from Romulus and Nokul (Staterais father), lets kill 2 birds with one stone…

To Nikal via Romulus…

A few questions about this item we are looking for…I understand his need for privacy, but we do need to know some things

1. Is it a weapon that can be used against us? And if so what can we do to protect us from it.

2. Is it an item that can foil our plan i.e. divinatory?

3. What does it look like so we know what we are looking for.

4. are there any special transportation needs for the item.

5. Other than the leader who would have knowledge of this item i.e. Nokul, Statreias father, heard about it through his time there, etc.

6. The leader apparently has the item, what can Nokul tell us about that?

As far as the plan goes…I really like it, anyone ideas as they see fit. All we need is to survive in the underdark undetected till the war party passes, correct? If we guarantee that we retrieve this item, Please tell me that Nikal and Romulus can wait the NEEDED time frame…does he want his item or not?

Could lead to some interesting stuff in the underdark!

Nifen would rather pissoff one wizard and try to run and hide for the rest of his life than perform a suicide mission into the underdark against a city of psychopaths, cutthroats and murder’s that use mind control and poison…(this is like telling me to go into Tibet and retrieve a holy relic, act like a native of the village of 300, I don’t look the part (not the same race), I don’t act the part (speak the language), Totally alien geography, and so on…am I acting a little too concerned?

Other than helping Romulus with his task, as far as I was concerned my business venture with Nikal, any and all agreements were completed when we delivered the first caravan to Na’al and back…so I ask, what is in this for us from Nikal? There was NO talk from Nikal as to a continuation of the old contract or any new contract. I hope he didn’t assume that we would be doing this for free?

I am doing this more for the elves of Na’al than anything. Which means that I would not go to the city and wait for the Drow t come to us. The more I think about this the more the arrogance of Nikal bothers me. This could be a misunderstanding but alas I feel as though I am being taken advantage of.


...

I have another idea about infiltrating the drow city and securing the item for romulus…talking to Nokul (staterias father) what does he believe will be the attacking strength of the drow war party on Na’al? Will they empty the city of its warriors and leave a skeleton crew in place?

My idea is to get into the tunnels of the Drow, outside the city and hole up waiting for the drow warparty to leave their city and pass us. Once that occurs and we are disguised as Nokul says he can, (members of the city, hopefully those that left in the war party) we can enter and find the item in question with considerable less pople in town i.e. warriors and matriarchs and so on.

We find and secure the item, leave town, travel in the direction of the node (our way back).

In the meantime the elves of Na’al have an ambush planned at the site of the node, waiting for the drow to surface. If the node is underground then there has to be a tunnel leading to the surface. Once the drow are out in the open forest and just away from the entrance to the cavern leading to the node the elves of Na’al attack in their home geography with advantage. Hopefully collapsing the enterence to the tunnel leading to the node (not the node itself) blocking the Drows retreat into their natural geography.

When we have the item we are looking for, we follow up the rear and grab any stragglers left behind or press the attack from the rear and pinch the drow war party from behind…if the surface cavern has been collapsed already upon our return then we either try and dig ourselves out or find another way to the surface…or Nikal being the master of teleportation that he is can come and get us…make your self useful old man
...
one more thing...if the leader who has this "item" plans of leading the attack on Na'al...all the better for us. we can follow the war party from behind and attack after the skirmish starts with the surface elves and the drow. trying to cut off the head of the snake and retrieve the item.
...
As the discussion ensures around the fire, Jameyes gets up, walks around, sits back down, occasionally appearing to following the conversation, but drifting off to follow invisible figures cloaked in the dark.

Rarely one to add voluntarily to a conversation, when asked, Jameyes pauses, gets up, and states: "I will go where I am needed to help save the elves." His once choppy words, like his once wild arching sword, becoming more even lately.

He paces around the end of the fire light, keeping an eye once again on any potential enemies lurking in the dark.
...
nifen raising an eyebrow nudges stateria and says, "see he is coming out of his shell. If we can add one word a day then my the end of the month we may get a conversation.
...

"Conversation? You can wait for him to string two sentences together, not me. If you want to teach the buffoon how to talk, be my guest. I’m more interested in getting out of this shit hole. And if the only exit is into the depths of hell, show me the road.”

Stateira stands up, circles the fire and looks at each party member in the eyes.

“I think we should walk right in there and tear them up. I’m no longer afraid of pain. I welcome it. Let’s spend a couple of days in Na’al stocking up on gear and then we should head right into them.”

“I say we sneak right into their town and destroy it. I don’t want to sit around and wait for them to do something. I want to get in there and find out what they’re up to. If they’re going to abandon or leave a small group in their city then let’s go in and raise it to the ground. We’ll let them know that we’ve crushed their town before they even get to Na’al.” She clenches her fist as if there’s a bug in it.

“If they’re going to just send out small groups, then let’s crush each one of them as they leave, until the thing appears,” motioning to Romulus, “and then lets rip it out of their bloody, dying, hands.”

Still circling the seated group, she says, “Either way, we should go in now and find out what they’re up to.” Walking up to Nifen, Stateira looks deeply into his eyes, puts her finger under his chin, raises his face so that they are looking eye to eye and says, “I’m not worried about them, I can tell lies to anyone and have them believe me.” Pulling her finger away, she addresses the group, “I’ll go in and find out their plans. All you have to do is wait outside.”

Care for a Trade?

You attack the hobgoblin encampment.

They see you coming but they are little match for the web that held 5 hobgoblins helplessly imprisoned as they watch you slaughter their comrades. The head hobgoblin, Hukar, exits his tent to easily jump the empty moat and charge the fleeing Stateira. Stateira hops around trying to use trees as cover from Hukar’s longsword. After being struck by Hukar’s full swing, Stateira shrieks in agony and runs, screaming at the top of her lungs like a little girl. The well-equipped and surprisingly fast hobgoblin chases Stateira around the forest until Jameyes comes to her rescue. Easily dispatching Hukar and his Lieutenant, Jameyes slides back and forth between the two foes delivering one slice to the abdomen of Hukar followed by a puncture to the Lieutenant’s kidney.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the camp, Nifen summons one monster after the next to attack the remaining hobgoblins. You all kill the hobgoblins and find their secret room. You find a bunch of treasure. You witness clouds moving overhead and realize they are above Verune. The clouds form what looks like a giant crystal ball over the town of Verune. The crystal ball remains there for about a day until you witness it pop and rain down water over the town. While Jameyes is witnessing this, Stateira and Romulus are out searching for tracks.

About a couple hundred yards to the south at the tree line, Stateira spots some obvious tracks heading into the mountains. Stateira wants to follow the tracks and Romulus wants to travel north-east to Yourn to follow the elves of Na’al. After arguing for what seems like half an hour, the group elects to follow the tracks going into the mountains. They follow the tracks for two days with no end in sight. Just as Romulus is about to walk off, they hear noise and see movement about a hundred yards off the path. Jameyes and Stateira approach to see two ogres arguing. They watch as a third ogre approaches and tries to stop the argument of the other two. Frustrated that he is not getting anywhere, the third ogre casts a spell and one of the two arguing ogres falls asleep. The awake ogre walks away.

Jameyes approaches the last ogre with hands held outward in a nonthreatening manner. The ogre, astonished at the gumption, yells out to Jameyes in his common tongue, “My, my, what the hell are you doing out here all alone? Are you crazy?”
“I mean you no harm, and I’d like to make an exchange,” Jameyes replies. He tosses a pouch full of coins over to the ogre.

The ogre looks down at the pouch and barks orders in a different language to his ogre friend. The ogre returns from being sent away previously and does as instructed—he bends down, picks up the pouch, and draws forth a gold coin, estimating that there must be about a hundred similar coins in the pouch.
The head ogre smiles. “Thank you. Now give me everything else you have on you.”
“Perhaps you don’t understand the meaning of ‘exchange’,” retorts Jameyes. “I give you something and you give me something. I gave you a hundred gold pieces and now you give me some information.”

The head ogre gets a look of disgust on his face. “Are you calling me stupid?” he asks in his gruff voice. “I don’t think you understand. You give me a hundred gold. Now you give me everything else you have. And in exchange, I let you live… at least for another five minutes,” he chuckles at his joke. “What do you expect to get from me?”

“Just information,” Jameyes says in a calm voice. “I am curious if you saw a troop of people walk by here within the last week.”

“Within the last week? You have to be kidding me. We don’t stay in any one place for a week in these mountains. It’s a dangerous place, you know. There are ogres around,” the head ogre chuckles loudly at his joke.

“Thank you. Good bye.” Jameyes turns around and begins walking away.

A Plan?

Pasted together parts of emails:

This plan comes from all the intel we gathered from Romulus and Nokul (Staterais father), lets kill 2 birds with one stone…

To Nikal via Romulus…

A few questions about this item we are looking for…I understand his need for privacy, but we do need to know some things

1. Is it a weapon that can be used against us? And if so what can we do to protect us from it.

2. Is it an item that can foil our plan i.e. divinatory?

3. What does it look like so we know what we are looking for.

4. are there any special transportation needs for the item.

5. Other than the leader who would have knowledge of this item i.e. Nokul, Statreias father, heard about it through his time there, etc.

6. The leader apparently has the item, what can Nokul tell us about that?

As far as the plan goes…I really like it, anyone ideas as they see fit. All we need is to survive in the underdark undetected till the war party passes, correct? If we guarantee that we retrieve this item, Please tell me that Nikal and Romulus can wait the NEEDED time frame…does he want his item or not?

Could lead to some interesting stuff in the underdark!

Nifen would rather pissoff one wizard and try to run and hide for the rest of his life than perform a suicide mission into the underdark against a city of psychopaths, cutthroats and murder’s that use mind control and poison…(this is like telling me to go into Tibet and retrieve a holy relic, act like a native of the village of 300, I don’t look the part (not the same race), I don’t act the part (speak the language), Totally alien geography, and so on…am I acting a little too concerned?

Other than helping Romulus with his task, as far as I was concerned my business venture with Nikal, any and all agreements were completed when we delivered the first caravan to Na’al and back…so I ask, what is in this for us from Nikal? There was NO talk from Nikal as to a continuation of the old contract or any new contract. I hope he didn’t assume that we would be doing this for free?

I am doing this more for the elves of Na’al than anything. Which means that I would not go to the city and wait for the Drow t come to us. The more I think about this the more the arrogance of Nikal bothers me. This could be a misunderstanding but alas I feel as though I am being taken advantage of.

...

I have another idea about infiltrating the drow city and securing the item for romulus…talking to Nokul (staterias father) what does he believe will be the attacking strength of the drow war party on Na’al? Will they empty the city of its warriors and leave a skeleton crew in place?

My idea is to get into the tunnels of the Drow, outside the city and hole up waiting for the drow warparty to leave their city and pass us. Once that occurs and we are disguised as Nokul says he can, (members of the city, hopefully those that left in the war party) we can enter and find the item in question with considerable less pople in town i.e. warriors and matriarchs and so on.

We find and secure the item, leave town, travel in the direction of the node (our way back).

In the meantime the elves of Na’al have an ambush planned at the site of the node, waiting for the drow to surface. If the node is underground then there has to be a tunnel leading to the surface. Once the drow are out in the open forest and just away from the entrance to the cavern leading to the node the elves of Na’al attack in their home geography with advantage. Hopefully collapsing the enterence to the tunnel leading to the node (not the node itself) blocking the Drows retreat into their natural geography.

When we have the item we are looking for, we follow up the rear and grab any stragglers left behind or press the attack from the rear and pinch the drow war party from behind…if the surface cavern has been collapsed already upon our return then we either try and dig ourselves out or find another way to the surface…or Nikal being the master of teleportation that he is can come and get us…make your self useful old man

...
one more thing...if the leader who has this "item" plans of leading the attack on Na'al...all the better for us. we can follow the war party from behind and attack after the skirmish starts with the surface elves and the drow. trying to cut off the head of the snake and retrieve the item.
...
As the discussion ensures around the fire, Jameyes gets up, walks around, sits back down, occasionally appearing to following the conversation, but drifting off to follow invisible figures cloaked in the dark.

Rarely one to add voluntarily to a conversation, when asked, Jameyes pauses, gets up, and states: "I will go where I am needed to help save the elves." His once choppy words, like his once wild arching sword, becoming more even lately.

He paces around the end of the fire light, keeping an eye once again on any potential enemies lurking in the dark.
...
nifen raising an eyebrow nudges stateria and says, "see he is coming out of his shell. If we can add one word a day then my the end of the month we may get a conversation.
...

"Conversation? You can wait for him to string two sentences together, not me. If you want to teach the buffoon how to talk, be my guest. I’m more interested in getting out of this shit hole. And if the only exit is into the depths of hell, show me the road.”

Stateira stands up, circles the fire and looks at each party member in the eyes.

“I think we should walk right in there and tear them up. I’m no longer afraid of pain. I welcome it. Let’s spend a couple of days in Na’al stocking up on gear and then we should head right into them.”

“I say we sneak right into their town and destroy it. I don’t want to sit around and wait for them to do something. I want to get in there and find out what they’re up to. If they’re going to abandon or leave a small group in their city then let’s go in and raise it to the ground. We’ll let them know that we’ve crushed their town before they even get to Na’al.” She clenches her fist as if there’s a bug in it.

“If they’re going to just send out small groups, then let’s crush each one of them as they leave, until the thing appears,” motioning to Romulus, “and then lets rip it out of their bloody, dying, hands.”

Still circling the seated group, she says, “Either way, we should go in now and find out what they’re up to.” Walking up to Nifen, Stateira looks deeply into his eyes, puts her finger under his chin, raises his face so that they are looking eye to eye and says, “I’m not worried about them, I can tell lies to anyone and have them believe me.” Pulling her finger away, she addresses the group, “I’ll go in and find out their plans. All you have to do is wait outside.”