"I have no judgement here. It's a mystery, I'll do as the group decides. But- perhaps downwards will take us towards our enemies and the captured prisoners?"

"That's good thinking," Thavriol says.

"don't expect miracles from me. no fire or thunder left in me. just blasts and cantrips."

"Downward then." Nolla says with a nod. She turns and starts to lead the way in that direction, but would allow someone else to move ahead of her if they wished to take up the lead position.

(no, by all means, be the first down there.)

Luckily, it's not a narrow ledge down, but remains a nice wide thoroughfare as it maintains about 20ft width as you traverse down. What starts with a gentle slope, gets steeper and shallows out at varying intervals. The path follows the cavern wall, bending and twisting with it as you go. After about 150ft, you come to one such bend to see a light ahead. In the light, you see four neogi standing over four humans, watching them as they go about moving items here and there. This scene is about 100ft ahead of you, and you've not been noticed as yet.

ooc: Thavriol will always take the lead, unless someone else insists.

Seeing what is below them, Thavriol turns back to the others and whispers, "If we attack, I can call upon Tyr to bless the three of you or I can ask his protection against evil for one of you.  The blessing lasts about a minute, the protection about 10 minutes.  You decide."

"I say share the wealth." Nolla says. "Bless for many is better than protection for only one." She grips her bow as she waits for the others to be ready.

"aye. just give the word." Samael aims his heavy crossbow, waiting for the signal to fire.

Thavriol nods.  He'd figured this would be the decision but it was best to be sure.  "How close do we want to get? Also, I'm thinkin' I should stay back, shoot arrows, so I have less chance of my spell being disrupted."

"Sounds like a wise plan. I can take the point here, since I won't have to carry my lantern around too."

ooc: Is it a straight shot to the humans and neogi or are there more turns?  And is it across level ground or does it descend further?

From what you can see, the ground is fairly level with a little rubble and debris here and there. The path from your current position is reasonably straight shot to the group of neogi around 100ft away, with just a gentle curve as it follows the wall of the cavern.

(ok, what do we do?)

(Yep, think we are waiting for a call of initiative or for the DM to give us the go-ahead to attack.)

Thavriol gestures at the neogi.  "Do we want to get closer or strike from here," he asks in a whisper.

(OOC - sorry, I was waiting to hear what the group wished to do. The neogi are not aware of your presence, so you have many options available. There was a few things mentioned, but I wasn't sure what you wanted to do based off those conversations and questions. If you want to attack though, you would have a surprise round, so you can call out whatever actions/attacks you'd like to make and roll your initiative in the same post. My apologies for the misunderstanding and delay.)

Nolla pulls back her bow, then looks to the others. She raises an eyebrow, clearly preparing to wait until someone else attacks first this time, just in case one of them is considering talking with a clearly hostile enemy first. If others do attack, then...

Short Bow attack: 16 to hit, 14 damage. (sneak attack included.)

Then she hides as a bonus action: 17

Thavriol nods as Nolla draws on her bow, holds up a finger to get her to wait a moment, and then calls softly on Tyr to bless his three companions.

As soon as he is blessed, Perigord charges ahead to attack the neogi. He isn't happy, but these creatures cannot be treated with peacefully.

rapier attack: 25 damage: 11

Initiative: 15

Edit: aaaaand i entirely forgot the blessing. Please add 2 to the attack, sorry DM.