Watching, or rather: listening through Nova is an odd experience. I’ve checked in on her a few times while she and the others have been scouting, but her spike in anxiety drew my attention. I can’t really blame her for being so nervous. That group was plainly different from the very start.

I’m glad the ambush went so well, and I just wish I was better able to communicate with Nova so she could ask what I want to know. Of course, she doesn’t talk so good, so I’d need to wish for that, too. Ragnar, Yvonne, and Aelara are doing great, though. The two new prisoners don’t try to resist as they’re stripped of their gear, and Nova even does her part to help make sure they’re not too cold. I’m just glad she’s above the surface so I can actually see, no matter how poor her actual eyesight is.

My wyrm scion also rumbles at Ragnar as he ties their hands in a weird way. He gives her a curious look before glancing back at what he’s doing, then nods in sudden understanding.

“Ah’m ropin’ their fingers. Weave it between, see?” He angles Merrik’s hand for Nova to get a better look, and the pale elf even sighs with a nod.

“It won’t fully stop me from casting, but it makes it a lot more awkward. By the time I can manage anything, they’ll be able to react and… discourage me from trying again.”

“Aye lad, ye’ve got it. Y’ two keep behavin’, an’ we may no’ need ‘em soon.”

“So… who are you?” asks Lechula as she sits not far from Nova.

Yvonne and Aelara look up from the map and exchange glances with Ragnar, before my birb resident answers. “Enemies of a certain hostile dungeon down here, though not necessarily enemies of you two. It sounded like you were looking for an excuse to get away from something.”

Lechula’s eyes widen at that, and even the stoic Merrik raises an eyebrow in surprise. “You’re from the surface, then.”

Ragnar nods with a grin and finishes tying Merrik’s fingers. “Aye, lad. An’ yer from th’ dungeon we dinnae like.”

“Actually… we’re from Silvervein, but the Maw emancipated us so long ago that it’s just history,” corrects Lechula.

The Maw? That sounds like a dungeon that would have something like that Harbinger, and would treat Aranya’s people like dirt.

“So, you two were looking to get away from this Maw?” asks Aelara, stepping forward to let Ragnar take her place at the map.

“Yes,” states Merrik simply. He even lets the silence continue for a few long seconds, until Lechula nudges his foot with her own. He gives her a flat look, which she meets with an encouraging smile, causing him to sigh and relent.

“Fine. If they’re inquisitors, they already know enough that we’d be sacrificed anyway. I’ve been growing more and more dissatisfied with the Great… the Maw and Silvervein for a while now, but I’ve kept quiet about it. Lechula and I got injured in training, and the time healing seems to have opened her eyes, too. I’ve been looking for a way to get us out since. Lechula wouldn’t be able to keep herself hidden for very long.”

“Hey!”

“Am I wrong?”

Lechula pouts as Aelara chuckles, and the earth mage elf motions for Merrik to continue.

“We are on assignment from the Harbinger to help guard and secure the area around the G… the Maw. Our friends were setting up camp while we scouted.” He pauses and looks a bit uncomfortable. “What are you going to do with them?”

“Nothing,” assures Aelara. “The caved in section is thick enough they won’t be able to hear us, and as long as neither of them has earth or wind affinity, they won’t be able to detect us, either.”

Merrik relaxes slightly at that. “They don’t.”

“You’ll really let them go?” asks Lechula with a mix of hope and fear, and Aelara nods.

“We really will. We’re not here to just slaughter. We’re going to stop that dungeon, that Maw, with as little pain as possible.”

“How?” asks Merrik, a skeptical eyebrow raised, earning himself a laugh from Yvonne. Looks like she and Ragnar have settled on a route.

“With our own dungeon. Several, really. Thedeim is getting to be something of an expert in fighting other dungeons.”

“It’ll need to be. The Harbinger killed two scions before the third was able to fell it, and the Redcap is at least as dangerous,” warns Merrik.

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“Redcap? You’ll need to tell us more about that, but later. Let’s get moving. You two have a good path out?” asks Aelara, to the nods of Yvonne and Ragnar.

“Aye. We’ll need you t’ cut through a few tunnels, but it’ll put a’ least a mile a passages b’tween us.”

“Then we can parallel the graveled path back to the surface. Should take us only a couple days.”

“The surface?” asks Lechula with wide eyes, looking like she was just promised a pony.

“The surface,” confirms Yvonne. “You’ll probably need a couple days to adjust to the sun and the sky… and maybe the cold. It’s winter right now, but spring isn’t all that far away anymore.”

The prisoners clearly want to know more, but the party wants to get moving. With Nova’s hearing, I can tell the other two members of the little guard/scouts are on the other side of the cave in, trying to figure out what happened. I wonder if they’ll immediately jump to the conclusion their friends were caught in it, or if they’ll try not to. I’m thinking they’ll come to the narrative of them being under the rubble pretty quickly. Their scouts should come running to a disturbance like that quickly, yeah?

It’s about another hour of marching before they break for camp, electing to make a hidden cold camp, though ‘cold’ is relative with Nova to provide heat and light. As everyone settles in for the stew to cook, Merrik breaks his silence.

“You’re not dwellers. You work like you’ve all been together a long time, and I doubt your dungeon has three enclaves.”

Yvonne smirks and nods. “We’re not dwellers, no. What can you tell us about that Redcap?”

Merrik keeps a blank face, but Lechula’s shows several emotions before her friend starts speaking. “He’s a metal affinity fey scion. Fighting him would be like fighting an army of blades, except an army takes up a lot more room. He likes to make gruesome headwear from his victims. Traitors to the Maw get sentenced to be hatted.”

Lechula looks a bit green as she nods, the party all wearing deep frowns.Yvonne speaks up first.

“What other scions does the Maw have?”

“The Harbinger,” answers Lechula. “Did it really kill two scions before it could be stopped? Everyone says it was on the brink of total victory before a lucky surprise attack knocked it off balance enough for it to get overwhelmed.”

Nova rumbles with her weird smile. Does having a triple mandible mouth let her smile three times at once? The frowns of concern from the others flip to grins as Aelara corrects the record.

“The two scions the Harbinger killed were not frontline fighters. Rocky is, and he obliterated the Harbinger after it hurt his friends.”

“A Conduit, then. The Redcap is probably one as well. The Maw has consumed other, weaker dungeons, though it hasn’t had the chance since the Harbinger came. Can your Rocky withstand the Harbinger and another Conduit?” asks Merrik, though he looks confused when the grins don’t vanish.

“Rocky’s not the Conduit, Fluffles is. In a straight fight, I can’t imagine hardly anything standing up to them working together.”

Merrik’s eyebrows rise in surprise. “A fourth scion? From the same dungeon?” He grumbles to himself and his fingers twitch, causing the party to tense. Thankfully, it seems like he’s just running some numbers, not trying to cast anything. His thoughtful frown turns into a more ordinary unhappy frown as he finishes his theorycrafting. “Even with a dungeon strong enough to field four scions, distance will make it difficult to strike. If it takes days for your dungeon to react, the Maw will still have the advantage.”

“It might take days for him to send more denizens, but it won’t take him long to react at all. Besides, your numbers are off,” corrects Yvonne, glancing at Nova significantly.

Merrik looks doubtful, but Lechula just comes out and says it. “That’s not your familiar, then?”

Yvonne laughs and shakes her head. “I’ve never been especially good with animals nor denizens. Nova there is Thedeim’s newest scion.”

“Five?” responds Merrik, his fingers twitching again. Yvonne doesn’t let him run those numbers for long.

“That’s not even half of his scions.”

The two prisoners just stare, with Lechula’s mouth hanging open in shock, while Merrik tries to come to grips with that statement. “Then… why not just roll in and subsume the Maw?”

“We said we’re not here just to slaughter. We need to stop the Maw, but we don’t want to just kill everything. We also want to save the kobolds. With a technically-independent town nearby, we’ll want to minimize collateral damage, too. Right now, we’re trying to get as much information as possible, while giving as little to this Maw as we can,” explains Aelara, causing Merrik’s frown to deepen.

“That’s… going to be difficult. While I’m pretty sure Lechula and I aren’t the only ones with doubts, there’s a lot of people who actively worship and revere the Maw, and a lot more people who go through the motions just to live. If it comes to fighting, I think most people will side with the Maw, if only because their friends will.”

Aelara sighs as the other two of the party grimace. “That’s what we’re afraid of. But that kind of situation can’t be allowed to continue just because it’ll be too big of a mess to fix. And the Maw and its Harbinger are too big of threats to ignore.”

Most everyone slumps a bit at the unfortunate reality before us, but one looks filled with determination.

“I want to help,” states Lechula, earning looks of confusion and shock from the others. “I don’t know how, but I want to help. The people don’t know what’s going on, the kobolds are slaves and sacrifices… we just need to open everyone’s eyes, like mine were.”

Hmm… a propaganda campaign? Difficult to do in a war, but maybe in a siege? Ugh, I really hope it doesn’t come down to a siege. I start tinkering with a few vague ideas as Yvonne smiles and rests a hand on Lechula’s shoulder.

“Then please tell us everything you can. The more we know, the more we can do to keep the town out of it. Take some time to try to organize your thoughts, too. We have a few days to get to the surface, and then a few days more to get to Thedeim.”

Merrik sighs and speaks up. “I want to help, too. I think we’re going to need a lot of information to be able to give you the info you need, though. It sounds like the surface works a lot different than the Maw does.”

Yvonne chuckles. “It does, and Thedeim works a lot different than the surface in general, too.”