As Llwyd had feared his companions completely failed to access the danger of the situation. The Shadovar would look at the place of their missing patrol one way or another, finding the so-called queen and fighting her. Leaving Lamorak at large only meant this would happen faster and the faces of everyone there would be a target. They would no longer face threat of the Netherese for being a group searching the ruins. They would be public enemies of them. It was the same situation with the drow wizard. The drow will be more alert to our presence here too.

It was almost funny to see the direwolf putting his right over his forehead and shaking his head in response to his companions’ decision. On his wild form there was no way for the druid to speak of the mistake in their thoughts and since the majority had taken but this time the druid was too wounded to press the hunt by himself. He was sure they would never find Lamorak so weakened and easy to defeat again.

Night passes uneventful. Wounded and tired the Satyr was fast to sleep and waking up decided to prepare Spike Growth.

“Would they let us use the teleportation circle through which we arrived to get into Candlekeep?” He asked unsure of how that magic worked. There was the prejudice of the people there to account for too.

Stallock looks to the group, "I'm afraid I've no expertise with such things as teleportation circles. All I know is that Candlekeep is half-a-world away. I've heard tell that if you get there by magic, it's so far away even the sun is in a different spot. Anyway, I'd leave that up to you. As for a horse...yes, I think it may be possible to acquire a horse on the way to Suzail. Not immediately but eventually. Or, of course, if we return to Hillsfar, we can find horses, and double back...book a trip to Suzail by boat, or potentially look into this teleportation you mention."

"A boat, hmm..." It was tempting. Very tempting. Irmiel was not the best horse rider there is, to put it mildly, and the idea to travel without any effort on their part seemed very interesting. She was honest in her opinion, though. "It might be my laziness that is talking but that boat trip might be both a safer option and the least tiresome. How expensive would it be, though? We did find some interesting things, with some I am willing to part even if needed," she rubbed the invisible ring on her finger with still silently sulking Belaern in it, "but would that be enough?"

Stallock scratches his chin, "Ha...well....I was sorta kidding. I'm not really a fan of ships...."  he looks a little nervous, but continues regardless, "A ship would have to go...well....all the way...around.  But, I mean, people do it. I think it's about a 2 week trip from Hillsfar, and passage is probably about 150 gold per person. As for safer, I mean...you can't DROWN when you're standing on the good solid earth." 

"750 gold for the five of us then," (Irmiel counted Stallock as a party member two) "I do not think we have one-third of this sum between all of us... Guess, no boats, as much as I like the idea. Still, if we sell something - they do buy magical items here, don't they? It could help. On that note, should we go with the horses - do we even need Hillsfar? Elventree can have them too. Or maybe some city more inland?"

She was running out of ideas and looked at others for suggestions.

"How far is Elventree?  The price of a ship is too much," Sistri says. "Likely teleportation would be too expensive as well. But maybe horses would help. And we just make the long trip overland." She looks at the other four, "It could be fun, right?" 

Stallock nods, "Well, Elventree is further than Hillsfar. And, I do know some folks in Hillsfar. I can probably get us a deal on horses there, even though ya'll will probably want to stay in the Inn just out of town if you're not fond of the city folk. Very well, let's go there....and we'll go for a ride." 

(Note, on the fallen Drow that you slew, you do find some treasure that I failed to mention:  

7 short swords, 7 chain shirts, 7 hand crossbows, 37 poisoned hand crossbow bolts, 57 gold, 65 silver, and 113 copper.) 

Another day of travel through the thick, dark, ancient forests of Cormanthyr and you emerge onto a wide roadway cut through the trees. The forest canopy still reaches far overhead and forms a complete tunnel, but the road is well maintained with wide areas of cut grass on either side of the well worn dirt road. It looks clear both north and south for as far as the slowly bending road can be seen before it rounds trees.  Stallock picks a few bits of brush off of him, nods to the group, and then leads you northwards. 

The next three days pass quickly....with a lot of walking. You pass by troops of Hillsfar soldiers out on patrol in groups of 30....they give you little attention....along with caravans heading south, usually groups of 8 to 10 wagons full of goods, and with large contingents of guards. As you're approaching the northern edge of the forest and nearing Hillsfar, this gives Stallock another option to present, "We could get horses without paying for them if we sign on as caravan guards. The trip will be a bit slower, but cost us nothing...in fact, we get paid."  

The next morning, before they move on, Sistri is up early. She steps a bit away from the campsite, though not too far, and kneels down on the ground.  Holding her amulet with the symbol of Mielikki, she prays softly even singing a few parts here and there.

After about 10 minutes of this, she stops.  For a few moments all is silent. Then a dark chestnut colored horse walks slowly out of the forest and comes over to Sistri. She stands up next to the large horse and spends a few minutes patting its coat and getting to know it. 

She then leads the horse back towards where everyone else is camped. As others awaken, she tells them, "I told you I could get my own horse. Her name is Ueli."  She says this all with a light smile on her face. 

Before the group leaves, she makes sure all the items they had found from the drow are gathered up, using her horse to help carry much of it. "We can sell this to help get us some money," she explains. 

Over the next several days she rides Ueli as the group travels. The large warhorse seems to follow her commands very well.  Often though she dismounts to walk alongside the horse. She first offers Irmiel the use of the horse now and then so she can rest a bit as they travel.  And as time goes on she'd offer the same to Kris, Llwyd, and Stallock if they appear tired. 

When finally they are nearing Hillsfar, Sistri nids agreeing with Stallock's idea immediately.  "Yes," she says firmly. "We should definitely take the job as caravan guards to raise a bit of money."

(OOC - She is casting Find Steed to get Ueli who is a warhorse. I would choose Celestial for the creature type and it understands Elvish. It's an instantaneous spell, meaning once cast the horse is permanent until killed or dismissed. And even then, casting the spell again brings back the same horse.)

"Are you sure?" Irmiel had nothing against waiting in the inn (she had this to do and a book to study) but encouraged both Sistri and Kris to get to the city. Three people could get things done faster and it seemed they did, though now she was questioning their choises. "I mean, money is a good thing but I travelled with the caravan to Suzail. Safe, sure but god it was slow!" She rolled her eyes to emphasize how painfully slow it was. "With your Ueli," Irmiel looked at the summoned celestial steed with the usual mixed expression of admiration and envy (to the useful ability, nothing else), "we only need four horses. Once everything extra is sold, surely we can get enough money for that. Then we can travel as fast as we want, not bound by the slowness of others or some contracts we can not walk away from. Don't you think that is better? We can get money for our report faster too?"

Irmiel did not push for the decision in any way, of course, just looked hopefully at everyone. Obviously, if others wanted to get a bit of money and did not mind extra travel days, she would yield to the group's will.

(Whoever will sell loot, Irmiel will ask to buy some ink for copying spells for her.)

Llwyd was visibly lost when the conversation moved towards money. All coin he had received to that point he had handed to his companions to divide amongst themselves as they saw fit and the reason was not generosity, but plain and simple inability to fully grasp monetary. What he did understand was that there was some division between taking work guarding caravans or not.

“I can’t really say anything about value and costs, but when it comes to traveling I will take safety over speed every time.” He said looking to everyone present, even the summoned mount. “Specially now that we let Lamorak escape knowing our faces. He or his companions may very well find us with magic and attack before we rely what we know. They won’t attack weakened and until I get some diamonds every one here only have one life so more the more allies we have, the better.” Even that was no guarantee of safety, he understood. I should have run after him. “We can always negotiate the terms of the contracts we accept and I think it reasonable to expect we can get one limited to guard a traveling group until our chosen destination. That is, if either Kris, Sistri or Stallock negotiate the deal.” His land went to his horn almost apologetically. He still remembered the distaste the locals had for other races. “Majority consensus?”

There was nothing more to argue about. "Caravan it is," nodded Irmiel. Well, guess I'll have time to write a spell or two into my book." Signing anything was indeed on the human part of their small group, so, she just waited for others to set things in motion.

Sistri seems to mostly ignore Llwyd's comments, bristling a tiny but as he laments Lamorak 'escaping'.  She doesn't quite follow his denial of knowing anything about value then pining over not having diamonds.  Although she supposes she should eventually learn what he wants with those. "I can probably take care of any negotiations and arrangements. Although..." She looks over to Stallock. "If you have contacts, then we definitely should pursue those first.  I would like to sell the extra items we picked up, then see about getting a position with a caravan.  I will leave the horses to the last, since perhaps the caravan could provide them as part of the deal?  Although if it would look better to already have our own horses we could do that before."  

After speaking with Stallock about his thoughts, she would turn to Irmiel again. "You are sure you are fine with trying to travel with a caravan?  It does slow us down.  But it's a long journey as it is to get back. It would be nice to get a bit of coins in our purses as it feels like we keep running into roadblocks from our lack of funds. If you have a concern I'd really like to hear it." 

"Oh, I have nothing against caravans in general," assured Irmiel, "should I be alone and in no hurry that would be my choice too, though, as a passenger, not a guard." She smiled a bit cheekily: "Do not like unnecessary obligations." Then added seriously. "Just thought there in Suzail they would like to be informed about our findings as fast as possible. Do not think Lamorak cares about us in any way, he has a bigger fish to fry, so to speak, but if we do believe he would want to hinder us, the slow movement would not help either."

Irmiel shrugged. "Guess we will just inform whoever is interested in Suzail when we finally get there, where the new shadovar city with a working mythallar is. Still useful information."