Chapter 1: Prisoners of the Drow

Who's in Jimjar's head?! the deep gnome's mental voice cries out. He sees all of you, he curls his lip a bit. Whether grinning for mirth or evil, you don't know. I know a fair bit about locks, oh yes. What do you need to know surfacer? He thinks at you with an eyebrow waggle.

Not more than a few minutes later, you see Jorlan at the cage door with a cart full of bowls.

As the prisoners begin to line up, he passes each bowl through the small slot in the middle of the door.

Remember scum, those are my bowls. You break them, the spiders eat. You don't return them, the spiders eat. You sneer at me ugly, the spiders eat. Go eat your food. You have ten minutes. He says with a sneer as your compatriots all make their way through.

Everyone appears to be as well fed as anyone else. Kind of at a neutral state. They have a vested interest in keeping you healthy enough to work and sell, but not quite healthy enough to be a scrappy rebel group.

You notice Dustin spending a moment or two longer at the gate than most, and Jorlan is looking about more than normal.

Jorlan nods at Dustin before the prisoner turns to walk away.

What Jorlan and Dustin were speaking about:
It is true what you speak. More than you know. If I could give you a means to escape from here, would you take it? He says very quietly, only loud enough that you can barely hear it over the clank of the bowl.

There are a few things you need to know, then. First, the guard tower across from the slave pens. If you go to the tower, and climb up in the room, there is the guard's armory there. For sure you'd find weapons, maybe some of your things. Second, you can pretty safely make the jump from there to the webs, and end up close enough to get into the water without having the spiders get you. From there you are on your own. If you are serious about this, I will leave the gate unlocked and ensure the guards are distracted during the change. You'll have to be fast though. You'll only have about 10 minutes after I unlock the gate to get to the armory. Not my skin if you choose to stick around after that. he says, glancing around furtively.

It would have to be at the next guard change, in about 4 hours. It's typically in the middle of a work shift. Depending on what I can do, I may be able to ensure that all of you are here in the slave pens, instead of out on a detail.

Rolling rolling

Over the course of the hour or so that you all have after the dinner period is through before the next work party is supposed to be picked up, Jimjar and Dustin work diligently, freeing all of your wrists from their manacles. Using a bit of creativity, you look at the sleeping form of Reizei, who has yet to stir. You find a little piece of rope sticking out above the metal waistpiece of his bindings. Tugging on it, you reveal a 5' length of silk rope he had kept hidden on his person. He doesn't awaken at the ministrations about his person. Topsy and Turvy very quickly work to pull the rope to pieces, using thin strands of spider silk to retie your manacles making it appear that you are all still bound, when in reality, a harsh tug would cause them to fall loose.

Feel free to continue RPing your activities during the dinner hour. I'll pick up story progression again once you've all 'eaten'.

If you are all going to take this offer, which I'm still not sure I'd trust this dark dwelling excuse for an elf, can I come along? While many of these other folks are dark dwellers in their own right, no one deserves slavery. Plus, I want my hammer back. That high priestess of theirs took my beloved hammer and has it locked up in her chambers. I saw it when they sent me to bring her dinner once. Eldreth thinks at you, forcefully.