Saliq laughed at Marissa's words, but the illusionist looked sad too to be leaving. After his own hug he smiled sadly and told the warrioress: 'Sehanine look over you Marissa.'

Then he turned and followed Rath.

Slightly before sunrise, the party moves out of Peryn's Crag, and heads south along the dwarven roads that led them to the place.  For the first half of the day, as the sun rises, it is a simple path but soon enough, the road turns to that which dwarven hands have hewn. A fine, smooth and will maintained road.  It follows in the deep shadows of the great peaks of the Iron Mountains.  One of the few huge and deep homes of the dwarves.  Though Doc's home is far away, he has long known of his cousins in the Iron Mountains.

The Great Forest to the right, the great mountains to the left, the party hikes and talks, the weather is good and it feels good to stretch the legs, to move and be doing something. Inas and Marissa passed this way on ponies before, so it seems longer by foot, but as the sun begins to fall, the territory looks familiar, it wasn't far beyond this that the attack took place.  You could push on into the twilight to the point of attack, or camp out and see the place in early dawn.

"Dawn seems safer.  Could send a scout ahead."

He pulls out a feather, and looks to the others to see their thoughts.

'Inas is our outdoorsman,' Saliq informed the newcomers Nemble and 'Doc'. 'If he says it's safer I'm inclined to agree. Whoever we send out ahead I can use my magic to make invisble. It might not help against the golem if it is still around but it can't hurt.'

Inas smiles at the compliment.  "Actually, I was thinking of aerial reconnaissance.  Something natural and therefore easily dismissed."

By the time Inas is done explaining, a serpentine owl appears; it circles and then follows a path ahead.

On Inas' suggestion, the party makes camp, a bit off from the dwarven highway.  The owl scout's ahead to the point of the previous battle, if you could call it that, with the Golem.  Other than some trees that were knocked down as it moved in for the attack, all is quiet there and in the surrounding area, no sign of the Golem or other foes.

The night is peaceful enough and hours go by allowing those not on watch to sleep.  It is deep into the dark of night that Durnin and Rath notice lights far out into the forest.  Eight to ten of them, moving quickly in a line through the woods, perhaps lanterns.  They are moving parallel to the highway and heading South. They are silent and moving quickly from the looks of it.

Upon personally seeing or being told about the travelers (whichever the case may be), Inas directs his owl to fly to the party's camp until it also sees them -- and then directs it to follow them.

Nemble helped where he could as the party set camp, before settling down by the fire.  It felt good to be out and about in the wild, natural places of the land again.  Gnomes were — by and large — an outdoorsy people, preferring their above-and-below ground homes to be in areas of unspoiled wilderness.

As the party members awaken to word of the strange lights, Inas again calls on his owl to take flight.  The bird sees through dark nearly as well as in light, moves nearly silent in its flight, and can hear a mouse scrabbling about from 60 yards away.  In no time, it locates the line of deer moving through the woods, each with several tiny figures riding on their backs. They look like tiny goblins, having spears and bows, long noses and wrinkled skin.  Even from a distance one of them turns and looks towards the owl and says something. A second later, Inas loses his connection to the owl.

The normally implacable  ranger is clearly concerned.  "I've lost my connection to the owl!"

He grabs his things, clearly intent on pursuit.

“Nine hells!”  Nemble cursed, rousing the others.  He grabbed his weapons and following Inas.

Saliq blinks, murmurs something in his native Zandaran and runs after his companions.

Rath joined the others, of course, perhaps several strides behind them as he gathered the essentials.

Inas leads the party directly to where he lost contact with his scout. Worried for the owl. The others, spread out behind him, working on arming themselves, or looking for safe attack angles, strapping on armor, waking up, adjusting to the dark woods.

Inas pulls up when he finds a cloth bag hanging down from a limb,  a note in a form of elvish, on parchment is attached to the bag, hard to read but basically saying, "Our forest, stay away, no spies!!!".

Inside the bag is the owl, alive, but asleep.

Inas can't help but grin.  A little.

He wakes the owl but does not send it aloft.  Instead, he looks fo rtracks -- knowing full well that they may be impossible to find given who is tracking.  Still he tries.

When the others arrive, he says: "I know they've warned us, but I can't help but think that as between as and what we pursue, the elves of this forest would prefer us.  And they could be formidable allies -- if we can find them."

Inas easily finds the tracks of a herd of small deer nearby but their is no longer any sign of the them or the lights seen before.

'I agree,' Saliq replies. The illusionist whispers a few words in the strange and subtle language of magic. As he did so he looked carefully around the area, as if looking for something only he could see.

---

OOC: Saliq casts Detect Magic.

Saliq is dazzled by what he sees, its like every other thing in the forest radiates some kind of magic, it clings to the edges of bark, leaves, small lights that were invisible to the eye are dancing through the dark forest in all directions, like a million fireflies, but only visible to his spell.

Having been seen, they seem to know it, and several of the larger ones, nearly an inch in height, fly up very close to Saliq, to every one else, it appears three small light materialize and float up to Saliq, to Saliq, he sees two tiny men with wings, and one lady with wings.

The speak as one voice, light but detectable in the quiet forest.

"Mortals shouldn't wander about the forest, things here might hurt you, by choice or by accident, besides the others will be pranking your campsite by now...." they giggle at that.

Nemble's eyes widened when he saw the firefly lights approach Saliq.  Gnomes were a woodland people, and some of the ways of the Fey folk were known to them.

"The tall ones speak true."  Nemble said.  "'Tis allies we seek, not enemies."

"An exchange of gifts, perhaps?"  The gnome offered, uncertain which customs and ceremonies the fairy folk held dear.  "Or oaths?"

"To show that our intentions — and our actions while within your wood — are pure."

At Nimble's words, there are multiple flashes around the party, and the three lights near Saliq become visible in their tiny forms to everyone.  The girl, flies over near Nimble, and says,

"Aren't you cute....You seem to know of us, we love to trade, and trade oaths...but you should not do that, we will try to trick you, hold you to words you did not mean to say, even the best of us are tempted to that, the worst of us...are worse than what you come here to seek."

'By the moon goddess it is an honour to meet you noble fey folk,' Saliq said. He smiled. 'My friend the gnome has been suggested wisely. Perhaps simply a exchange of stories or of magic? We have seen much and done much.'

Inas had some experience with fey; some good, some bad.  But if that experience has taught him one thing it is this: he has no special talent or insight that will help produce a positive outcome.

Plus, in such dealings, more voices is rarely better.

So he lets Saliq and Nemble take the laboring oar(s).

The three fey, giggle delightedly, "A knight of the Dream, offers a story, we could not resist if we wished it.", they fly up together for a moment in quick conference, "A story of whimsy, or portent?" They ask.  Without waiting for the answer, they say,  "You begin...after you've each taken a turn, we will take ours"

Rath was wary.

And, for the moment, silent.

Saliq strokes his trim beard thoughtfully. 'Well there was the time a half-dragon, half-basilisk turned me to stone. Or the time we became guardians of a baby dragon. Or when we confronted a giant snake made out of wooden blocks. Or our journey through Dream, though it seems you have heard of that. But perhaps I should begin at the beginning. It was an evening when a young man named Lhosof walked into a tavern with a gleam in his eyes and a sack full of gold...'

As he drew into the story of the adventurers first expedition into the Gaping Maw the illusionist laced his words with the language of magic and drew strange sigils in the air with his fingers. A group of adventurers appeared on their first quest, Saliq and Ben and Norion and Eagle and others now forgotten. As he spoke of the sewers the air became crowded with the scurry of rats, as he told of the battle with the goblins their leering forms appeared from behind trees only to vanish into blue mist at a gesture. Ga appeared, as ugly as in life and engages in a duel of wills with Saliq, as he once did so long ago before his final defeat. The epic story climaxes in triumph... then turns to comedy as the adventurers slip and slide across the forest floor trying to capture the escaped boggle Khreev-dag.