Julian walked a little way, got bored, shrugged at Gina and then blasted on the whistle.

The sound of the blasting whistle spread in all directions around Julian.

[OOC: It might take some time before this sound reaches the other threads, if at all. And it may take a bit longer for them to investigate. Just letting you know.]

Having walked one chamber away from where they had discovered the secret door before using the whistle, one person came from the eastern passage. But it wasn't one of the others. Though it was a face both Julian and Gina recognized. It was her second cousin Kris Dragonword.

Some time later the others found their way there too, from the northern passage. Though their numbers had increased too. With them was Peter MarKenin and his wolf.

Out from the darkness came the familiar voice and face of Peter MarKenin, "one.. two...three..four...one...two..." his voice in cadence with his rhythmic step, at his side his wolf Crymson, "Well hello Julian, Gina... how are you two?  It's been an odd day for me to say the least... I had been sent on a mission to find horses, found a sewer open and decided to look into it, and low and behold I find Marcus here with Dove," he motioned to the woman with them, "And now I find you guys...how fortunate."

Marcus wastes little time, though he is pleased that everyone appears to be safe. "We shouldn't hang around. Dove and I almost walked right into what I think was a ghoul. There is no telling what else could be down here. What did you find?"

"What did we find?  The way out of here.  Also a severe fiber deficiency in the local residents.  No ghouls though.  I think they were kept at bay due to my terrible awesomeness.  I thought they were only legend though.  Or elsewhere."

Julian motioned with a hand as he turned around and started walking towards the tunnel he'd found, half-expecting it to be gone when they got there.

"C'mon, the ultra-secret tunnel is this way.  Next time we tell them to just give us a map."

He put away his whistle.

"Did I miss anything, Gina?"

"It would be our romantic walk in the park while we waited for them to catch on," Gina said. "But other than that, nothing I can think of."

"Ultra secret tunnel?  What's...three... going on?  what are we looking for?"  Peter said as he walked, though his speech was broken by an occasional number between one and four, rhythmically falling on one of his steps, "Are there any...four...horses where you're...two... going?"

As everyone had said their hellos, Julian and Gina led the rest of you to the next chamber and he easily opened up the secret door this time, causing a part of the wall to swing away from them, almost without a sound, and into the secret passage.

A long narrow passageway was before you and led you to a set of stairs. And the stairs led deeper into the ground, until you arrived in an enormous room carved centuries ago. A soft radiance, apparently from small dancing globes of light, created the illusion that the ceiling, high over their heads, was a starlit sky.

As soon as you left the stairs and entered the room, the people who lived in the ancient chamber saw you. Word spread as swiftly and as softly as a spring breeze through the tiny city of tents and lean tos. And weapons glinted in the soft light like fireflies in the dark.

A tall slender figure walked towards you out from among the others, gliding forward without apparent effort. She was shrouded in a white gossamer robe, her silver white hair, a nimbus tumbling over her bare ivory shoulders. She had a young face, but the sadness in her eyes belied her age. Her pale blue eyes gazed at you. And as she looked at each of you, her eyes stopped at Digorye and stayed there until she seemingly remembered what she was doing.

And Digorye returned that look, much in the same way as his grandfather Raynald had said he'd looked upon Tika Waylan so many years ago.

"Greetings," she murmured softly with a light blush giving some color to her cheeks. "I am Lady Shaylin Moonborn of House Mystic. It was I who called for you." And a small and bitter smile touched her lips, which seemed unnatural on her beautiful face.

"Welcome to our humble home," she said and gestured to indicate the chamber and the elves huddling together, looking at you.

"You must be tired," she continued, the smile already gone and a deeper pain in her eyes. "Follow me and I will show you where you can rest and I will answer your questions."

[Private to Marcus Valarian: This woman is the white dressed woman from Marcus' dream.]

Apparently the elves were hurting for amenities, a realization whose suppression required Julian to remember some of the good and noble things he'd been taught in his youth.  In the end he distracted himself by silently sizing up most of the women he saw as potential mates, assigning each a generous number between one and ten and not at all thinking about what treasures and riches these elves have absolutely no access to.

It was Marcus' show anyway, and that meant that Marcus would need to take the lead.  Julian was only here for the chance to see how the fine sewer-folk lived.

Peter  wasn't liking this at all... first he was on a mission for his Lord to find horses... then he found himself searching a sewer... then finding Marcus again, wandering the sewers himself.. and then Julian and Gina... now he stood before a group of subterranean elves who apparently had called for them.

"I'm confused," he said as he followed, one...two...three...four...one...two...

Julian nodded solemnly and sagely at Peter.

"You know, FOUR! It's not so confusing EIGHT-ONE-THREE-NINE-NINE... Like I was saying ONE-TWO-ONE-ONE-THREE!  Er... it's not so confusing as long as you relax and let it all go. ... FOURFOURTHREESIXONETWOONETHREETHREEEIGHT."

His angelic smile indicated that he was done talking.

Marcus pales as he sees the woman. He follows along as she leads, but he hurries forward to walk beside her. He quietly says to her in elven, "Milady, I know you. You haunt my dreams. Lord Paladine sent me visions of you, as well as a key. Do you know anything of this?"

As they walk he calls back a little louder to Julian, "Peter is a Knight, but he is not a fool. I am not sure even you can manage to make him forget how to count to four."

"I will answer your questions soon," Shaylin said.

You continued through the enormous chamber with its enchanted ceiling. The floor was made of tiny black tiles, carefully fitted togethet in patterns. The stone walls were black too.

You reached a good sized silk tent made of stained from sewer exposure with carefully mended tears and Shaylin invited you inside.

The inside of the tent was simple and sparse, illuminated only by a flickering flame at the center of the tent that gave little heat and light, but no smoke. A small chest stod to one side with a backpack leaning against it. And a small bedroll was neatly rolled up and placed on a pillow. The smell of jasmine filled the tent, a welcome reprieve from the sewer.

"I'm sorry I cannot show you true hospitality while you are here," she said and invited you to sit down. "But the little we have is carefully rationed." She sat down gracefully, and seemingly by accident facing Digorye.

"I'm sure you wonder why I have summoned you here," she looked at your faces for nods or other verbal or nonverbal confirmation before she continued. "For the past few days I have been having dreams. Most disturbing dreams that cause me to wake shivering and drenched in sweat. But so far I've only been able to remember one thing from these dreams, as the details are whisked away as soon as I awake. But the one thing I do know is that my dreams involve you. And it seems I have entered your dreams as well." At this Digorye looked around at the rest of you with a jelous look in his eyes.

As your eyes returned to your host, you noted that her eyes turned white, and that she began to murmur in a sing song pattern.

"There is a pattern, you cannot see.
Instead you must set your spirit free.
Take the key to the shattered ruins,
through the sands and over the dunes.
Seek the answers in the sands of time,
search your souls and find the sign."

With a shudder the elven wizardess returned to normal, took a hard breath that only caused her to cough violently.

"I am tired," she said. "Please rest for now and we shall speak later."

Peter continued counting as they walked, seemingly impervious to Julian's ribbing.  But when they neared the tent, his attention was brought back to his surroundings. "...one...two.." he stopped at two, but looked around quickly for a space, "...three...four." he said with finality, he had to finish his four-count regardless...he didn't know what would happen if he didn't; but he feared what would happen if he did not.  It had been a fear of his for a long time, ever since he could remember...but he knew he had better not break it.

His face went slack, back to normal, then to a slight grin at Marcus's chide to Julian, "Thank you Marcus... but I am yet a Knight, I am only a lowly squire."

He stepped into the tent with everyone else, taking a seat where suggested near the others as Shaylin went into her trance.  When she was finished, he looked around at those gathered, "But what key?  Have we a key?"

The surroundings were pretty weak-sauce compared to all the tales of elves that used to be told, but what with half the race being a bunch of homeless refugees this sort of welcome was bound to be the currently common case.  Perhaps in a few decades bards would tell of magnificent bas-relief sculptures painstakingly and lovingly carved by elven hands on sewage pipes, and of the gentle and breathtaking ease with which the elven canoes navigated the condensed effluent of their new homes.  No doubt the rumors were already started and Julian couldn't wait to add his own voice to the quiet clamor announcing that the noble people had been knocked down but not out, and that they would rise - or sink, as the case were - to the occasion.

Brought back to the moment by Peter's question about the key, Julian shrugged.  It was the best and unfortunately most appropriate summation he could find.

"Metaphorically yes.  It's a songbox, or rather it has something to do with a songbox.  Maybe it's just the song the box plays, or there's some element to it we haven't deciphered like maybe the tiny dancer inside it is magical or an elaborate mechanical device we haven't quite sussed, but yes, we have the key, or at least the box containing the key.  I assume we'll figure out what the key actually is once we need it."

"There's also another riddle or two that we've heard.  I'll give you the censored version for both of our safety:

'The stars are set in motion,
a plan both cunning and divine;
beware of specters in the night,
beware of unseen design;
the key you hold, others desire;
protect yourself from obsession’s...'"

Julian stopped abruptly and waved away the rest of the poem with his hand.

"The next word made the old woman who told it to us burst into flame, so I'll just tell you the word is hot and rhymes with 'desire' and you can figure out the rest."

He poked a dubious elf-treat and with his expression a mask of shocked disappointment helped himself to a moldy biscuit from his pack.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:39, Mon 29 Sept 2008.

As Shaylin stod up to leave, Digorye rose too and offered to escort her to her quarters, and she accepted his offer just a little bit too quickly. And the two of them left.

"He means fire," Gina said and finished Julian's poem. "I didn't know you had such a good memory Julian."

Peter sttod up quickly as Shaylin rose, "Goodnight milady," he said with a slight polite bow of his head.

He sat back down as she left, "Where would the 'sands and dunes' refer too?" he wondered aloud, "We must take this key to the shattered ruins through the sands and over the dunes... I have a feeling the obsession's fire is the intent of those which seek the key as well...we are in the darkness now, where these specter's may be..."

He looks around the group with caution in his eyes, "We need to set up watches tonight, we may be amongst friends, but there may be others mixed with our friends that seek our key..."

Julian smirked at Gina and tapped his temple knowingly.  His wry mood was unhinged from its mooring with Peter's needless pontificating, and certainly his distrust of the company they kept was shattering.

"What, elves?  Seriously?  Nah, I think we're good.  What are they going to take, our woodwork?  Nah, we'll just sprinkle some tiny gnome metal gears around our sleeping quarters and we should be fine, they hate those."  He nodded sagely at his own advice, squinting slightly and wagging his index finger in a pointing manner off into space.

"Seriously, the desert is right northeast of here, its about the only thing between Pashin and Ak-Khurman.  It's nothing but sand, heat, and some of the ugliest, most snaggle-toothed nomads you've ever met.  Or at least that's what I've heard.  I'm sure they're actually lovely.  We'll just wander the wastes then?  I mean, once we know where we're going and all that."

Marcus offers Digorye a dark look as he leaves with Shaylin. He answers Peter by saying, "You are right. Among any but trusted friends we must keep a lookout. As for our next steps, the Lady said that there is more that she must tell us. Perhaps our way will be clearer. Of course," he sighs, "We are still meant to be leaving on the morrow with the trading party. At the very least we will have to speak with Lord Brightblade and see if he will give us leave to go our own way. Which is doubtful. He will probably be highly unimpressed with what we have been doing so far."

"Do you think she expects us to remain here or would she mind if took a look around," Gina asked.

Marcus shrugs slightly and replies, "They let us in, I assume they will let us wander around. If our movement was to be restricted I am sure that it would have been mentioned. Just keep an eye on the reactions of the other elves for guidance."

"Well, I'm not going to sit here not doing anything.  These elves have to have some kind of idea of how to enjoy themselves.  I bet they make some serious alcohol to wipe away the pain and shame of the destruction of their entire culture and civilization.  And deal with the fact that they live in a refuse pit."

He hopped up with a smile.

"Anyone want a drink?"

"She talked about rations," Gina said. "Perhaps there isn't enough to make your coveted drink. But there might be other interesting things out there. I'll go with you."