Prologue: To Boldly Go Where People Have Not Been in a Good Long While!

Carlos takes the pendant, taking the time to notice the useful alteration. - "That'll come in handy." - He then takes a few steps from the rest of the party, presses the button, and starts speaking in a hushed groggy voice, as if he'd just woken up - "Uh Nesme... estas aí?"

There's arguing in elven on the other side. Two men and a woman (not Allinandra). Finally Allinandra yells at them. After they shut up she responds in Nerathi, "No. This is Allinandra."

Carlos is surprised to hear more people have arrived - "Oh, hi. You got company over there?"

Kathryn approaches Carlos, and leans over the dwarf to listen in on the conversation.

Unhappy whispering in elven accompanies the next message. "Yes. I'm throwing a little party for you. To celebrate your success. You are very late though. The band is getting rowdy."

"Oh, did Nesme take off to fix her makeup then? Sorry we're late, we've just been busy looking for survivors and trying to piece this thing together."

The following silence stretches out just long enough for Carlos to know message received. "Is that so? And what have you learned?"

"Ugh..." - he laments - "Damn Gnolls made a horror show of this place. Went to the rooms, found but bits and pieces; could just as easily belong to Elf children as they could to halflings or Gnomes..." - he pauses just a tiny bit after that last word -  "...for how mangled they are."

"We would have come out sooner, but ended up finding this girl with big blue eyes. Couldn't stop crying because she thought it had all been her fault. Ended up promising her we'd find the truth of it all and, well..." - he sighs - "We're just tired. Honestly i'd just as soon skip the party and bring it down nice and quiet, if you don't mind. I think we could all use that."

"¿Se encuentra ella bien?"

Kathryn gives Carlos an inquisitive look, asking him to let her speak. He nods at her, and she says, "She's glad to still have a friend who is worried about her, but she's confused by everything that happened. I'm trying to reassure her right now."

More yelling in the background before you guys all hear Allianandra speak a spell followed by a magical discharge and it's sickening impact into flesh. In the silence that follows Allinandra takes a deep breath before answering. "Bueno. La fiesta ha comenzado. ¿Un poco de ayuda?"

The sound of blades being drawn and arrows being knocked is heard in the background. Allinandra is now speaking in the language of magic again, casting another spell...

Kathryn runs for the door and readies her sword. "Eyton!?"

"A camino." - Carlos responds, depresses the switch and scrambles for the door - "Liam, take them through the Feywild like we planned! We'll hold them off until you get there."

"Right! Come on you two!" Liam indicates for Hunter and Jojo to both touch Eyton, which Jojo promptly does before saying, "We'll hurry. Good luck!"

Zoe follows Carlos and Kat out of the Grove and to the doorway. Once they get there she says, "I don't know what we'll find on the other side but I'm going to cast a spell on you two to help. Please hold still."

If you guys do, she'll cast Aid on all three of you. Your current and maximum hit point totals have increased by 5 for the next 8 hours.

"Thanks Zoe! You make sure to stay behind me and Carlos. Don't do anything reckless!"

She waits for the door to open, and heads out.

"Gracias, niña." - Carlos then faces the roots and draws Isabella. Will move as soon as the path opens.

Hunter frowns as the quiet whispering continues between Allinandra and Carlos, and he draws his bow when he hears the sound of steel flying out of scabbards, before being quickly rushed over to make contact with Eyton's trunk.

"No waiting, huh? Could have at least let us slip through before they were ready for a fight."

When the roots of the entryway open up, Allinandra immediately turns on the Woodsinger clan, and the ground party notices one of the elves' movements are incredibly fast, and some have already started attacking Allinandra. Unbeknownst to them, this elf was a bladesinger, but Kathryn poised to take him out as quickly as possible. They taunt their enemies as the fight goes on, with Kathryn behaving almost the mirror opposite of her cherub-like demeanor in the grove. More ten seconds later, Hunter appears on the wooded incline above the entrance to the grove, joins in with a shot that plants the final root in the ground for one his fathers' clansmen. He berates them for choosing to murder innocents this day, and the relative of one of their clansmen, but he comes off as high-and-mighty and his words and are not welcomed warmly or with any sign of remorse.

The fight is soon over after this display. Five elves are dead, one flees, and one surrenders. Kathryn opens the connection to Eninahes through the token granted to her, to let her know everyone is alright. Then, she pounces on the surrendering Woodsinger, yelling at him to get on the ground, pushing his head down onto the dirt.

Allinandra starts sinking into the ground, saying "I'll be back." She flies off in the form of an eagle, presumably to find the one who managed to get away.

Snapping off the shaft of the arrow stuck in him, whinging at the pain a little, Hunter runs up to the surviving Woodsinger with an arrow pointed down at his head, slightly shaken, from the recent fight and from anger with the situation. "Get off him, Kat," he orders her firmly. "Anything bigger than a shortsword, we take. Anything smaller, we take."

"You got some rope?" she asks.

"We don't have to worry about him. He's not going back to the clan, or to Nesme. In fact, he's going to leave this forest and never return. Aren't you?" he asks the clan member.

Kathryn,  looks at Hunter. "Are you sure?"

"Those are the rules, Kat. Right?" he prods the elf again. Carlos just watches at the scene, too tired to say anything. Kathryn gets up, but not before taking all of his gear and gold. And his boots. And his socks.

ooc:

OOC:

The elf keeps his eyes on Katheryn, fear plastered there for all to see. He nods in agreement after Hunter prods him the last time. While you guys wait for Allinandra to return Liam comes springing down the hillside in his panther mode. When he sees the dead he transforms and says, "Where's Allinandra? She didn't get away did she?"

"Some stragglers got away; she went after one." - Carlos explains - "This one here had the sense to surrender."

Kathryn is almost ready to let go of the elven man and give him some space so he can talk to the rest of the party, but she suddenly decides not to, and observes her surroundings instead.

"Hey, look at ME." The elf nervously looks between him and Kat.

Wait...where's Ludmilla? Hunter doesn't see him. At this point, he would have let her take over, but she's gone. Who could have...?

Nesme.

For a moment, Hunter isn't sure what to do. He tightens his grip on the bowstring when he feels the tension slacken. Anger helps him pull it taut. Should he kill him? Banishment is a huge deal, but death is permanent. No, he can do better than that.

"Tell you what. You tell us everything we want to know, and we'll let you live. If you don't tattle on us to anyone, especially to the hierophant who kidnapped the ranger, and I won't tell anyone what you and your friends did here today. How does that sound?"

Kathryn had already noticed the ranger's disappearance before Hunter mentioned it, and now that her fears have been confirmed, she darts a dark glare at the prisoner while slightly tightening her grip on his shoulder.

Carlos just waits to see.

As Kat observes her surroundings she finds the meadow much like how the party left it. Overgrown with wild flowers and grass, but beautiful nonetheless. Jojo's cart has been moved 120 feet to the north, well away from the battle. Hot Lips the mule is contentedly eating grass not far from it, none the worse for magical explosions and upwind from the smell of blood and death so there's no need to fear the mule running off. There's no sign of Nesme or Ludmilla though.

Liam nods in acknowledgement at Carlos and says quietly so as not to interrupt Hunter's interrogation, "Sorry I'm late. I got delayed by a pair of overzealous guardians. Pixies can be...stubborn. Did Hunter and Jojo at least make it in time?"

The prisoner licks his lips while he thinks and then nods in agreement. Zoe asks him his name and he says it's Peren of the Woodsinger Clan. His Nerathi is heavily accented, but he speaks it well enough if he talks slowly. She offers him her waterskin to drink which he does gratefully. When he is finished, Peren hands the skin back and says, "Ask your questions."