Story II: City of Shadow

Pyrrah glowers and grinds her teeth and her eyes flash angrily, but she bites her tongue for the time being. If that sword cost them anything, anything at all, she'd get rid of the damn thing, regardless of if the rest of the group agreed.

She walks to the back of the group with feigned relaxation, though the anger is still there. She grips her bow tightly in one hand and with a flick of her wrist drags the shadowy mage hand bearing her torch back closer to her.
"Enough of this nonsense. We should leave. I'll guard the back."

"Just this way," Neph says, beckoning you all as she begins walking forward down the tunnel. She offers a wave to the pixie guards that remain behind. "Be safe! We'll be back soon!" Their replies are heard only in their native tongue, but they hold the same reassuring tone.

The tunnel first opens up after a couple minutes into a small chamber with two exists. Up above exists a tunnel that extends into the ceiling and almost immediately out of sight as it turns sharply. Ahead, at an angle, exists a continuation of this tunnel. Neph seems unconcerned with the passage that extends upwards, and presses on ahead.Neph continues to lead everyone through, for another couple minutes, until the tunnel opens up wide. Once more, well-lit by massive, glowing, blue crystals, you enter into a massive cavern. Perhaps this is a continuation of the same cavern with the land bridge, with the pixie village merely existing in between. Instead of a bridge, however, the pathway immediately curves to the right, and descends at a sharp angle. It will be some time before you reach the bottom of the chasm, and there are a few twists and turns on the way, but that appears to be where this pathway is headed.

On the cavern's floor, you spot jagged, sharp rocks, and fissures that seem to give way into black depths. Some of the cavern ground even possesses small bodies of water, whether shallow or not.

Every now and then the sound of your boots scraping the stone is interrupted by the sound of movement somewhere in the grand, open distance.

"So," Neph says as she carefully descends the path, hugging close to the wall, "What is your home like?"

"I didn't realize you were coming with us Neph, your not fully healed."Ameera looks critically at the injured wing "As for me, I've been living in a Valkarian city called Khunburgh, have you heard of Valkaria and the lands above? I spend most of my time helping people fix their distribution of wealth problems." She smiles waiting for a reaction from Neph that doesn't come. "I live in the sunshine, work in the moonlight, and sleep below the city with the sewer Dwarves. Have you ever seen the sun and moon? Our noisy friend Baric, back there, is a Dwarf."

Pyrrah waits for Ameera to finish, and for any subsequent response from Neph before speaking from the back of the group.

"Sevarra may have its problems, but it's home to me. The cities are pretty well spread out, and most rule themselves. The most coalition I've seen is a few close towns banding together to have a leadership council. We prefer to take care of ourselves these days. Home used to be the south farmland by Cadamma; the soil's good if you want to risk it. There are some bandits and monster attacks, but it's not so bad once you're used to it. The independence kind of grows on you. Although the last three years or so, home has been wherever I could find a bed and a night's rest."

Neph initially brushes off Ameera's concerns. She tries to flex her wing to show that it is better, but the attempt only causes her to wince when she stretches it to its limit. Still, she seems intent on going with your group.

To Ameera's explanation, Neph is attentive but mostly bewildered. At her questions, Neph shakes her head and simply says, "I've heard stories, but that is all. Valkaria and Khunburgh mean nothing to me. Some others that looked like you found their way near our home before, and shared their stories. Since then, a few of my people say they have seen the great, blue cave you live in, and the big lights at the top. I haven't. I think they lie, anyway."

To Pyrrah, Neph seems to grasp a bit more of an understanding, especially at the mention of monster attacks and danger. "Sounds familiar," she muses.

Evendur is quiet, almost seeming to be somewhat lost in thought. Evendur does seem to listen a bit more intently to Ameera, Falre, and Neph's conversation.

"Neph, you may have to see up top one day, if only just to see how wildly different things are."

Evendur goes quiet for another minute or two, and then with a wistful smile creeping onto his face, says "I'm really not sure whether or not I have a home. I loved the place where I grew up, but the people there are just not for me. I'll have to see if I can find a good place to call home in a few years. For the mean time, there is plenty of good left to be done before I call traveling quits." At the end, his wistful smile changes into a smile containing more contentment the the one he had previously had.

Neph nods her head, acknowledging Evendur's reply. She smiles softly as she continues leading the way to the bottom of this ramp.

Devanis checks that all his gear is secure, then prepared to descend first.

"We should send Zubie down for a look" Ameera peers down the crevasse, trying to judge the difficulty of the climb. "Zubie, fly down and check for enemies."
The imp acts as if he had just been awoken and scowls more than his normal devilish expression. He launches himself into the air and takes one turn around the opening before fading from view as if he were being washed from existence. The flaps of his wings can be heard as he descends into the opening, then all is quiet as he presumably is able to move more freely.

Devanis descends cautiously. He acknowledges Zubie's value as a scout, but old habits die hard.

Devanis tries peering through the hole if he will see anything. Zubie, are you around here? the ranger whispers.

Ameera attaches the spiked tips to her boots and dons the rougher gloves meant for climbing. She begins the decent, backing down into the hole. "In case you didn't know Evendur, there is a lot of this climbing offal to deal with, and I hate it. Yna cast your eye elsewhere."

Devanis looks up sharply when he hears Ameera struggling. When he's sure she's relatively safe he squeezes through the hole.

Evendur puts on the climbing gear, and after Ameera starts to decend, he will say down the crevace, "After the time I've spent down here, actually having climbing gear makes me feel better if nothing else." Once there is enough room, Evendur double checks his climbing gear, and starts climbing down.