Chapter 2: Into Darkness

Oh thank the gods! Proper Common! Poor shape is an understatement! I am Francis of the Nightwood. Georges and Everytt are my retainers. the man with the lantern says. Those damn drow. They snatched us months ago. We were in this big city of theirs, ready to be auctioned off. They made a mistake and left a bit of wire near Everytt's reach though. He sprang our cell, let us out. We've been running for at least a few tendays. We're exhausted and hungry, can you spare a bit of food? He continues, frantically.

Well, my men and I were on our way to Neverwinter. I'm a merchant baron you see. My company specializes in silken fineries. Anyway, we were on our way to Neverwinter and we were crossing an empty field, trying to get our wares to town. I had a perfect client arranged, willing to pay an obscene amount of money for a limited run of a particular blue silk cloth. I was hand delivering it, that's how important she was, you see. Plus, she's a bit of a looker and would make a welcome addition to my household. As I was saying, though, we were travelling and had just made camp. We were all asleep, curled in our tent. Next thing I know, there's a sharp pain in my neck, and as my eyes opened, everything went wavy and then it was black. When I awoke next, the three of us were clamped in these chains, shoved into some giant stone cavern with about 30 other people. A few days later, a cart took us to this massive city of Drow. Several of those we were with were auctioned off as slaves. As they led a group away and locked the gate, it was only 5 of us left in the cell. That's when Everytt noticed the scrap of wire just about out of his reach. Thankfully he scooped it and managed to spring our lock. We made a run for it. Not sure how we all made it out in one piece, but make it we did. Unfortunately, we had no guide here. We've been wandering around and have no idea where we are. We were attempting to make it to Blingdenstone, Georges here claims to know someone there. Can you tell us where we are? He stops, finally, sucking a deep breath.

At that point, Sarith stirs in his sleep, rolling over, exposing his face.

A DROW! HOW DARE YOU TRICK ME! he cries out, as he makes to throw his lantern at the sleeping drow.

Francis looks about the room, his eyes clearing. I will not pretend to understand, but you have dwarves, elves, a half-orc, and others and none are dead. Either he is different or he is sufficiently cowed to be safe. My apologies, it was a shock. He says, spirit calming a bit. I truly apologize. We are thankful for your fire and whatever rations you can spare.

Francis and his men gladly accept the food and water you offer them. They sit down and begin eating the dried fruits and meats with gusto. As the final hour or so of Cemos' watch draws to a close, Francis speaks up again. If you are all travelling the Underdark, with a guide no less, would you object to the three of us joining you? Georges can be quite the scrapper in a fight, especially if you can arm and armor him. He was a soldier, you see. I hired him to try giving me some waking security. He insisted on standing a "first watch" when we were captured, but I overrode him and made him rest. Perhaps I should have listened. Either way, Everytt there I raised up from quite the vagabond life. He was a n'e'r-do-well in our city, conning people out of this and tha. I convinced him to join me and use his shrewd eye to secure the best deals whenever things got interesting. He says around a mouthful of food. Plus, we can help search for food down here. We've managed to identify at least one good fungus down here. It looks like a giant barrel and has tons of water inside if you can tap the wall of it. Barrelstalk, I think we heard one of the people we ran across call it. They were nasty though, so we avoided them.

I will need a few group decisions at this point.
1) Do you take Francis and company on as additional members of your retinue. For flavors sake, they are three humans, no class levels but they do have the noble, criminal, and soldier backgrounds and the skills those convey.
2) What pace are you setting for this upcoming day of travel? Slow, Normal, or Fast?
3) Any change to your role assignments from earlier?