"There were six of them in the patrol that chased Sully and me," Ayas advises. "Though I am more confident of our chances in my present company. Perhaps we might take one of them alive in the hpoe they might tell us of the movements of the flying mountain and how it might be reached?"

"Six? Don't like their chances!" Alasha'an smiles thinly.

"Though I'm not confident we can keep any alive - from what I've seen they're against it on the whole. We might knock one out, I suppose.. but I don't know that they're going to be very helpful when they wake up."

"Just make sure that I am bound before the moon rises -  or shut yourselves in that hole that Ayas makes.  I can  live with their blood on my conscience.  Yours is a different matter ...."

"Ah don't reckon as them drow would attack in daylight. Don't like the light, so far as Ah 'eard. Reckon they can't see too well at all in daylight. So maybe they ain't got no one watchin' us now? Reckon they'll be back after the sun sets, afore the moon rises. Ye sure ye don't want to move camp an' try an' shake 'em off, at least for tonight?"

"If we can find somewhere ..."

"But if they found us here, why wouldn't they find us somewhere else?" Yetta asks.  "And when we're up the rope, we're pretty much... gone anyway, aren't we?  What if we just make it look like we left?" she proposes.  "Send them off in some direction we don't plan to go when we do leave, and stay here?"

The elf shakes his head. "In the mists they have no fear of the sun," he explains.  "And less risky to take one afflicted with the madness of the beast when the moon does not transform them.  They will come in the day."

"Sully and I could not outrun them, perhaps we will have more luck if we try.. or perhaps we would be better making what preparations we can to greet them on our own terms? Ambush them as they mean to do to us."

The elf grins nastily. "They'll be expecting to find someone who ran off when the change hit, nothing in the way of weapons, little in the way of clothes. Imagine their surprise!"

"Ayas, Brugar and you," she looks to Hamin, "in here waiting for them.. your daughter and Varl outside with me.  Think you can avoid being spotted?" she asks the nervous rogue, more than confident in the abilities of herself and Yetta.  "If not, hang back till you hear their screams."

"Then we hit them from both sides as they enter our very own hole in the rock. What could possibly go wrong?!"

Brugar thinks about Alasha'an's plan for a few moments before responding.

"Aye, sounds like a plan to me," he agrees. "D'ye want the three of us huddled in a circle round the fire, draped in our cloaks to hide the weapons we be 'olding? To draw 'em in close, like? Might make us easy targets for poisoned arrows, though. Ah 'eard summat about drow using that kind of dirty trick. Maybe we oughta use what cover as we can instead?"

"Aye," the elf confirms Brugar's concern about the poisoned arrows, "they do favour them, though they did not use such weapons when they chased down Sully and myself.. I think they liked the thrill of the chase, poor sport though we must have been."

"They'd only be suspicious should they see anyone else in company with one who had fallen to the beast within - such unfortunates seek solitude, both the the change and for what usually follows.  Best they see none but Hamin."

Ayas looks around the hidey-hole to see what cover it might provide.

The collapse of the rockface has left the area strewn with boulders and small rocks outside, where you might seek cover, and within the naturally formed cave walls protrude and jut out, providing sufficient concealment.  Additionally, there is no direct line of sight to the opening from the back of the cave.

The entrance is but five feet wide, and as the cave winds back a hundred feet or so the width varies between ten and fifteen feet.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ... placements per Alasha'an's suggested ambush positions.

Hamin smiles thinly and find a blanket to wrap around his shoulders.   Sitting down close to the doorway he wraps the blanket around him to hide his armour.   However he makes sure that his pole arm is close to hando.

"The sacrificial goat is ready
..."

"I'll give you fair warning if any visitors approach," Alasha'an waggles her finger on which sits a ring, the twin of which is (usually) on Hamin's hand, snorting at the idea of the one-eyed warrior going meekly to the slaughter!

Brugar isn't happy about being stuck right at the back of the cave and he moves back towards the entrance a bit further before he is happy. He takes up a position about 10ft south of Hamin where he can still be out of sight of anyone entering the cave.

"Ah don't wanna be late for the party if'n them drow spot any of ye 'idden outside there", he tells Alasha'an, Yetta and Varl.

While your plans are made and you all take up your positions ... it seems the Dark Elves may not be so obliging, as you wait and wait, the hours going by.

But come they do, at last, Alasha'an relaying the news to Hamin inside the cave and the one-eyed warrior passing it on to Brugar and Ayas as the Elf bids Yetta and Varl duck down to use the boulders to shield them from the eyes of the hunters until they spring your trap.

The Dark Elves approach with a care that seems driven not by fear but of a desire not to scare away the helpless beast-man they think to find, though as the close upon the cleft in the cliff face that is the entrance to the cave and they believe their quarry now cornered, they abandon their caution, predatory smiles lighting their faces.

There are four of them, not the six that Ayas had supposed, all wearing cloaks, with the hoods up as if to ward off the sun that cannot penetrate the mists, one with a long knife, two with arrows nocked in their bows and the last holding a wickedly spiked flail.

"Come out, little wolf, come out," the one at the fore calls from the opening, toying with the dagger in his hand, his words picked with a deliberate cadence.  "You belong now to the Lady of the Pale, and we must bring you to her !"

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Hamin grins inside his blanket and  get to his feet leaning heavily on the pole that lays conveniently to hand.  However, when he straightens fully, and flexes his muscles, it is obvious that he is not going to be a lamb to the slaughter.

"For you, now, she is the Mistress of Nightmares." the old warrior grins thinly as he recalls another of Rhianon's sobriquets.  "And she may actually be blessing me for a change.  I have been bored and frustrated over the last few days, now she sends you for me to play with."  The grin widens for a moment before he suddenly snaps a command.  "Kneel before me, scum!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:37, Sun 03 Nov 2019.

Brugar glances at Hamin and grins back at him. He remains pressed back into the bend of the tunnel as far as he can to stay out of sight of the drow until they come much further into the tunnel.

The mage looks more than a little alarmed at Hamin's unexpected challenge, and the grin on the face of the Dwarf does not calm his fears.

He holds a sticky ball of spider web between his fingers, steeling himself to step forward and invoke his magic once the dark elves enter the cave.

The elf grins broadly as Hamin's words reach her ears and she waits for her chance to spring into action.

Hamin's single eye blinks once, and he lowers the point of his polearm to point at the ground.  "Now."

The leader of the Dark Elves snorts with derision at Hamin's challenge.

"The Widow-Maker is our mistress, and she'd not have us shirk from such sport !" he replies with cruel pleasure, advancing into the cave, uncaring of his fellows, though two of them, the pair with the bows do follow, the one with the flail seemingly conent to wait without.

As the third passes over the threshold into the cave, Hamin gives the signal to attack !

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Hamin  stretches and strides towards the first of the dark elves, ready to strike it as soon as he can.

OOC:  Ach, I wasn't looking at maps, was I?

As Hamin gives the word, Ayas hurries forwards from his place of concealment, aiming his spell for the cave's opening, hoping to catch as many of the foe as possible in the webs he creates, careful to keep sufficient distance from Brugar lest the Dwarf's magic shield interfere with the magic he wields.

"These.. or others like them slew my friend," his fears are set aside now as battle is joined and cold anger comes unbidden, his words an accusation.

Brugar looks a better t bemused about the strategy unfolding for this fight, but strategic thinking was never his strong point anyway. He follows Hamin’s lead and advances down the tunnel alongside the one-eyed warrior.

As Brugar and Hamin advance purposefully towards the Dark Elves, Ayas steps out of the shadows, words of magic tripping from his lips as he rubs the spider's web between his finger, throwing it towards the foe.

The webs fly through the air to the far end of the cave, expanding to block the entire opening with a mass of sticky strands.  The Dark Elf towards the rear manages to leap clear but the other two are bound fast within as Dwarf and Man close upon them.

Outside, Alasha'an darts forward, though Yetta misses her cue and Varl stumbles in the Elf's wake, struggling to keep up.

Ignoring the one that barely escaped the webs, the Elf brings her dark blade down upon the other, dropping him with but one blow, and easily dodging the hurried shot from the the remaining Dark Elf as he looses an arrow from close range.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...