Svelta agrees to take you back to the settlement of the deep gnomes and allow you to rest at her temple. "As for the stairs," she says cutting the rope holding the boat and letting it drift downriver, "that should keep those goblins and hobgoblins from crossing the river again, at least for a little while."

"Sounds like a plan to me.  C'mon Thor - let's go get some sleep...and a snack...definitely a snack first and then sleep."

Alora nods and gives a chuckle.

“Rest is somthing I could use for certain”

"Does anyone have the strength to check the horses with me before we rest?  Svelta, are there any males among your people who could teach us "invisibility"?"

"I'm sure there is someone," Svelta replies as she begins leading you back through the caves and tunnels. "When we get to the village, I know a few people I can ask."

Eventually, after what seems like several days, you return to the walled village of the nibleni without incident. Svelta leads you past the guards at the gate to her temple, where she summons several acolytes and begins giving them instructions. "Your rooms are being prepared and should be ready soon," she says to you all. "In the meantime, feel free to explore the village some more or rest here in the Mother's Temple for a while. I will send an acolyte for you when things are ready."

Oh, by the way, you can all level up now.

(OOC YAY!)

Prim sits on a bench knowing the horses will be taken care of (those suckers were expensive).  She goes right to sleep as soon as she lays in a bed.

[OOC yes!]

"Hey Prim - check out this new spell I learned,"  Taxidea says.  He makes a swirling motion with his hands, says some words and 6 tiny meteors start to swirl around him.  "Can't wait to try it out on some Hobs."

Prim wakes up rested but...unsettled.  "That was a strange dream", she thinks to herself.   "But it makes sense.  As if I'd connected the puzzle pieces of what I've learned.  Better write it down."  And she writes it in her spellbook before going to breakfast.

There: "That's an interesting spell Badger.  Do they turn into fireballs or something?  I learned a new spell too, buuut..." She gives the flat hand wobbling 'good news-bad news' sign & grits her teeth in a 'cringe' expression.  "Since I'm a necromancer, it's not exactly something to flaunt in town."

Orion wakes up early.  "Are those tiny meteors?  What do they do?"

As you sit down to breakfast, Deragor and Bolin enter the room dressed in fine armor and brandishing new weapons.

"So, how do we get back to Freeport?" Bolin asks.

"Yes," Deragor agrees. "We should report our findings to the FDF if we are not going try to get an orb from the hobgoblin fortress."

"The question is, how do we get the orb from the Hob fortress?  Facing the Hob army hasn't worked very well.  They may not know it's us, but they know someone breached their back door & will likely increase guards there.  I have my hob masks (proudly holds them up) but I don't know how effective they'll be.  So, scout to see if there's another way to sneak in, or head for Freeport?  Other ideas?" Asks Prim.

Taxidea chuckles.  "Heck yeah - I can throw them at something and they explode on contact.  Just picture it: 'dur dur dur - I'm a stupid ugly Hob - what's that?  Oh crap! BOOM!  Now I'm a stupid ugly dead Hob."  He laughs again.  "They're not gonna know what hit em' - literally!

Responding to Prim, Orion says, "I'm not very good at impersonation or deception.  I'm thinking I might be a hindrance to any plan to sneak past the goblins."

Alora says

"Perhaps those not as good stay in the back and let the best of us at deception take the attention?"

"I think the key in defeating the goblins," Deragor says, "is to reduce their numbers as quickly as possible. Perhaps we could somehow lure a few away at a time instead of taking them all on at once."

"Yes," Bolin agrees. "A full platoon of twenty or more goblins is obviously too strong for most of us, and a century is out of the question. If we could get them one squad at a time, we would have less than a half dozen to fight."

"Maybe," Deragor continues, "if we could catch them while the squads are training separately ... ."

"What was your plan, Prim?" Bolin asks.

"I was listening to suggestions first.  If anyone has Invisibility, other spellcasters could try to learn it to help with stealth.  Or I could teach Sleep as a quiet way to take out a squad.  Fireballs can take out 20 at a time, but we don't have many is the reason I was thinking of ways to be stealthy.  Even a help action from a stealthy person beats nothing, especially if someone can listen and have the loud people stay back.  Do we have enough stealthy people for a shot at scouting?"

"I could probably help with that," Deragor says.

"Don't think I would be much use when it comes to being stealthy," Bolin admits, "but I can try."

"I'm sorry Deragor, but I don't have anything to beef up your stealth.  Do you think it would be better if we followed you from a distance for support, or should we wait for you to report back.  We'd need some info on where they practice and the layout of their base at minimum.  At best, see where the priests and generals are, since the orbs might be behind enough stone to make Locate Object useless."