Hot Tub Party!

It's near the middle of the group's stay in Candlekeep that the arrangements are made. Favors are exchanged, and some money changes hands. The Bath and Steam House lies empty and dark.

A handle turns and the back door creeeaaaks open...

"Midnight pool party!"

Imoen squeals with delight. "Oh, you are the best Seekers ever! Candlekeep has never been this much fun." She moves to a tall, fixed pole with a glass globe on the end and taps it twice. The globe lights up, spreading a comfortable glow over the outside hotpool. Welcoming steam rises from the pool's surface. "I'm going to have to be much nicer to Drosh after this. Not that I was ever not nice, but you know..."

She slips into the water with a sigh.

Dieter walks in wearing tri coloured swim trunks with blue, red, and yellow stripes running down " hey guys!" his chest is lightly scarred with the skin tinged near the more recent wounds. He has a muscular build but in the end he is a sixteen year old boy.

Aiwë eases into the pool with a blissful sigh. "I don't know about you cushy Kuldaharans," she begins with a wink, "but this is the warmest I've been in my life."

Imoen lets herself sink down to her chin. "I don't even know what Kuldaharans are, but this is the warmest I've been in my life."

She moves to a stone seat in the pool, then glances at Dieter. "You lot sure have seen some adventures! Fighting bandits, rescuing wagons! It sounds like so much fun!"

She spashes a bit of water at Sheemish. "Aren't you coming in? Big guy like you isn't scared of the water!"

"Sorry I'm late!" Stella slips through the door. "I think I've finally got the hang of that text copying spell...now to actually gather some material..." She steps into the pool and notes those present. She notices the boys, looks over them and hesitates a bit sheepishly, but quickly relaxes as the inviting warmth beckons her in the water.

"Ah..." she sighs and sinks into the water, fluttering her eyelids as the stars behind them turn a relaxed bluish-green. "This...this is nice..."

She sits up and her eyes widen, the stars in them quickly turning pink. "Aiwë!" she exclaims turning to the musician, scooting closer. "That song was incredible! I don't know what it was about, but it was so...moving! I meant to tell you earlier, but you had a lot of fans surrounding you...and Mesen," she winks.

"you should apprentice at a dwarves forge….it’ll probably cook you"

"Haha! Sounds comfy! And boring. That rhythm though..." She stares off into the distance for a moment, nodding her head slightly as though she is running through what music put to a dwarf smith's hammer would sound like.
Aiwë laughs. "Thank you! That's okay, it was a bit busy, wasn't it!" She grins, seemingly unaware of the understatement 'a bit busy' is to describe the pandemonium in the tavern.

"Mesen is so nice!" Aiwë agrees, apparently missing the wink and subtext. "He picked the song about Kiora I sang afterward. I thought he might pass out!" She looks as though she probably would have found that satisfying, a mark of a good performance.

"I'm glad you liked my orcish song though," Aiwë sinks deeper into the water, becoming more subdued. "It's called, 'Gruumsh Holds Your Life in His Hands.'" To the point, but orcs are like that. "It was a priestess' chant. Maybe you could call it a hymn. If a Tormish hymn were called that it would be comforting. Comfort was not the point of that chant. Khanna said I could sing it if I used it to spit in what's left of the dead god's eye, but she has no nuance," she sighs good-naturedly. "Now it's a mourning. A remembering."

Aiwë is quiet for a moment, eyes closed as she floats in the steamy water, only her face breaking free of the surface.

"Did you like my elvish song?" she asks Stella suddenly, eyes still closed. "I don't know if gabbing about flowers and trees and grasses is what lovers on walks really do---especially being so wordy about it!---but I'm pretty sure their descriptions of the plants were all accurate, if... flowery." She grins.

Stella gives a wry grin then opens her mouth to point out that Mesen was attempting to flirt, but shuts it as Aiwë keeps talking. If Aiwë was interested in a guy, she would probably make it pretty clear.
Stella nods, listening silently, trying to recall what Aiwë their parents had told her about the orcs and Gruumsh.
"Oh, yes!" she exclaims. She giggles at the pun, lifting a dripping hand to cover her mouth. "I think flowers, trees, and grass all sound like lovely things to talk about on a walk," she muses.

She rests her arms on the side of the pool and leans back, staring up at the brilliant new sky, sprinkled with unfamiliar stars.

"Stars too! 'Moonlit walks' sound nice...but then you can't see the stars as well! Though I guess not everyone can see where they're going in the dark." She rolls her head to glance sideways at Dieter and Sheemish through the steam and grins. "Aiwë told us all about her lineage. What about the rest of you?"

After an exceedingly awkward pause, Stella sinks a bit into the water. "Nevermind...Maybe a bad question," she chuckles nervously.

She looks back up to the vast, starry sky through the rising steam and continues gazing. It was still bit hard to believe she was in Candlekeep, and not the Icewind Dale. So much to do! Such adventures to be had...

"I thought it was a great question," Aiwë assures her, lips barely free of the water. She winks at her friend. "Tell me about the stars here? They look a little different." She then closes her eyes and floats pleasantly to the sound of Stella's eager exposition.