When the party stops to rest for the night Auriel searches for a quiet spot where he can clean his halberd, trying not to disturb the others as he does so. He spends a long while doing this, and not only because the weapon needed it, but because he needed it too. It was a habit acquired from his father, whom Auriel had seen many times doing it to rest his mind and disconnect by focusing on a simple and repetitive task.

With each stroke —first of the cloth, and later the whetstone— the eladrin reflects on the events of the day. What went right, what went wrong, what he could have done better. After he finishes, he sets the halberd aside and prepares to trance, his Summer form already faded into his baseline Autumn.

The next day, Serelis's question catches him off guard. Not because he hadn't been thinking about it, but because he didn't really expect to voice his concerns aloud. "I'm not sure how to feel. On the one hand, I admit I long to see Greenhall again. I still think fondly of its people and how they welcomed us when we needed it. I've even toyed with the idea that I could be allowed to enter the village and see my family again, even if only for a few minutes. But having seen that poor man covered in arrows ...", he shakes his head, "...I'm not sure how the elves will react. I just hope that their dislike for trespassers has not reached the point to attack one they used to call their own not that long ago, and that they let us find Halvin and the farmers peacefully."

Carl sits nearby and listens, feeling very lost in these lands, he hones and polishes the blade of his battle axe as he listens, but says nothing.  He frequently looks to Auriel, as well as the periphery, always looking out and listening for movement.  That night he ritually casts alarm nearby, hoping for some sort of protection.

Evening has fallen on the Quivering Forest, and you enter a wide glade of surpassing beauty surrounded by a ring of tall trees. Small shelters have been built halfway up the trees, accessed by spiraling staircases that circle their thick trunks.

A handful of elves meander about daily life here. Upon seeing you, some of them call out in alarm and flee into the shelters while others grab weapons and head in your direction. They stop 30 feet away from you and spread out, before one calls out in Elvish.

"Va shar col ben quor! Las'uel bren shesh ent teshuel vian tari stu'or ausa va.  Kar et qu'esh elen sar col va d'en sharti va shi'en!"

Five of the elves wear leather armor and have longbows drawn and aimed toward you, with shortswords at the ready on their hips. The speaker holds his shortsword toward you, with a crossbow held in his other hand. From several of the trees above and around you, you hear the rustle of several bows being drawn, and the creaking of arrows being nocked while the drawstring is pulled back and held taut.

For Auriel, Hex, and Sylyra:

As the sight of the tree shelters come into view, Sylyra can't help but smile as he follows the spiraling stairs upward. Is this what his ancestors' homes were like? This is how to truly commune with nature. It's so different from Waterdeep and its stone buildings and stone streets.

After the string of Elvish is uttered, Sylyra holds his tongue, but he does push back his hood and shake back his hair to display his elven ears.

Uragum raises his hands in a defensive manner.  He leans a little towards Sylyra and whispers, "I don't speak Elven, but I'm pretty sure that was an insult."  

Upon entering the village, Auriel couldn't help but feel a spark of joy as he took in the scene. While he couldn’t quite call Greenhall home— that title still belonged to Mithrendain, despite everything— this place had been the the closest thing to it. The feeling was only momentary. In the span of a mere blink, he was watching the glade though pale green eyes while the glade breeze played with his greenish-blonde hair. Another blink, and the elves addressing them had already shaken the eladrin out of his reverie.

He raised his hands slowly, and spoke back in Elvish so as not to offend the armed figures further. "Tyr na galu na-den o i ngelydh. Ú-velon naeg. Ammen i athrabeth ennas na nestad i vanwaith o Kabel’s Hills a chîrar an gwannathad. A thand an edraith i gwedh o Phlan a i Eledhrim dan i thangail. Istannen ú-vedin men estathar den. Istannen ú-vedin men estathar den an-uir. Aníron an cenithar i vi gweg a i thangail penias nestad an."

Auriel paused before adding, "Greenhall annannen nin a i ndyn nîn ned naid vain meth idh lû thent, ben i thinnathar aphad ammen o i Faew. Ae den aphad, aníron an linnathon athrabeth i veleth vain – ae sui an luith – an nin a i verenwaith nîn, si cenithar i math hen prestannen?"

After saying all this, he glanced his companions slightly, inviting them to add anything of they could consider necessary, even if it meant saying it through Hex, Sylyra, Serelis or himself.

Upon stepping into the glade, Hex is thoroughly impressed by its beauty. She can't help but be reminded of Serelis' home - a welcome and quaint respite that stood in stark contrast from the constant danger of the forest. Just as before, however, that respite is quickly broken as they are suddenly surrounded by armed strangers.

Despite being able to understand and speak elvish herself, Hex took a step back and let Auriel and Sylyra do all the talking as elves themselves. She quietly whispered translations to Uragum and Carl as the conversation continued, nodding at Auriel when he glances at the rest of the party to convey her approval of what has already been said and not wanting to add anything more.

Sylyra takes a step forward, raises his hands (one of which holds his staff) briefly, then lowers them again as he calls out in Common, "We're not a threat to you, obviously. Could we speak with the elf in charge? The sooner we can come to an understanding, the sooner we can get out of your hair."

Pipyap rolls his eyes at the Elvish dialogue and after Auriel finishes speaking, emits a rude noise imitating some rather intense flatulence.

"Va le'or Greenhall ent ha'ir Tel' ge'or lor nae yn ar ifna'el bi ba'el quor ausa va, lei epalo feer lor nae weva va ausa welsa alta? Pre'i'ta!" the elf shouts coldly at Auriel.

Pipyap, now hovering in midair, waves away the elves. "Just kill these stupid elves and be done with it. We can steal their food if they don't want to give us any," he says. Two elves from the trees launch arrows at the imp, narrowly missing and striking the ground beneath him. With a yelp, he shakes a fist at the trees.

The speaker narrows his eyes at Sylyra, but holds up a hand after a few tense moments, replying in graceful Common. "Neither you, nor your devil, may set foot within Greenhall. You will remain where you stand, in plain sight of dozens of trained archers. We will speak, and I will promise nothing more."

He speaks to a man and woman behind him, "Fetch some water and trail bread." As the pair saunter into the village to fulfill the request, the elf turns back to the party. "This is as much a welcome as you are going to get, Fen'hareth. Tell me why you are here then, if not why you believe you deserve more hospitality after bringing a devil to our doorstep?" he asks.

For Auriel, Hex, and Sylyra:

Carl can get the general gist of the conversation and sees which way this is going.  He hears Pipyap and his rude outburst, which threatens all of their lives.  With his eyes glowering dark black, hands clenching into fists, he says to the imp, “Pipyap, shut your yap!  Get over here and act civilized, unless you want to be dead!  By them, or by us!”  He glares at the imp to let him know that he means business, that he does not want him to sabotage their efforts.  

Auriel had tried to prepare for this. He had imagined the arrival at Greenhall, the faces he was going to see, the tension that was inevitably going to arise. But none of the scenarios that had run through his mind, nor the dialogues he had rehearsed time and again, had truly prepared him for reality. He glared at Pipyap after his outburst, but the imp fell to the background the moment their interlocutor pronounced the words the paladin had dreaded. They wouldn't be allowed into Greenhall. The hope to see his parents and sister again, crushed in just a few words. 

Quote from BartyMcDougal >>

"This is as much a welcome as you are going to get, Fen'hareth."

At this, Auriel lowered his eyes to the ground. After a few heartbeats, he raised them again towards the elf and nodded curtly. Deep inside, a swirl of emotions fought to wash over him, and he, in turn, fought to keep them at bay.

The eladrin looked at Sylyra and the others, a silent plea for someone else to continue the conversation reflected in his eyes.

Sylyra glares at Pipyap, then turns back to the representative elf, feeling more than seeing Auriel's hesitation. "We aren't here for hospitality. We are here to fetch those idiots who unwisely entered your forest, remove them, and take them back to Kabel's Hill. One was already returned with the hag's mark. And we found another along the trail sprouting arrows. We will gladly take the others off your hands if you will point us in the right direction to collect them. Once we have them, we will all leave the forest with the intent of never returning." He glances at Pipyap. "If the devil offends you so, no one will stop you from returning him from whence he came."

Pipyap scowls at Carl but says nothing further while Sylyra speaks to the elves. He opens his mouth as if to object at the druid's final comment, but looking around and seeing how outnumbered he is, wisely stays silent.

"We did encounter your villagers about a tenday and a half ago. They had run out of food and rambled about an insane woodworker who 'didn't mean the elves any harm'," the elven speaker says in reply. "But we had not seen a woodworker, insane or otherwise. That group of villagers were the first humans we've seen in a century."

"What happened after you encountered the villagers? Do you know where they went? And the one we found before, riddled with arrows... that wasn't your doing?"

Auriel half-listens to the exchange between Sylyra, Hex, and the elf as if through a wall while he still chews on the latter's words. He remains silent but refocuses his attention when Hex asks about the dead farmer they found the day before. The eladrin wishes the elf will say they didn't shoot him to death just for stepping into the forest, but deep down, he knows these aren't the best days for wishing anything.

"What happened after you encountered the villagers? Do you know where they went? And the one we found before, riddled with arrows... that wasn't your doing?"

"They had no business being here, and neither do you," the elf answers as a simple matter of fact. "We do not know where they went after that, but do you not?. You tracked them here, after all."

The other elves return with some plain but filling trail bread and a pair of water jugs to refill your waterskins.

Hex frowns as the elf dodges her question about the dead villager but decided not to push any further. "I wouldn't say we tracked them here so much as we came here to ask if you had seen them. You were the only possible lead we had so it seems we've come to a dead end..." As the other elves approach the party and helps restock their supplies, she stops one of them before they leave. "Thank you for your hospitality. If it wouldn't be too much to ask, could you spare a few arrows? I'm not sure how long we may be in the forest and I'd rather not find myself without any to protect myself."

"We do not know where they went after that, but do you not?. You tracked them here, after all."

Sylyra turns to Serelis, raising his eyebrows. "Well?"

"That man didn't deserve to meet his end that way. An arrow in the knee would have had the effect you wished to obtain and wouldn't have left a family mourning a lost life", Auriel said breaking his silence while glancing slightly at the elves around them. He had lived among these people, and it was only now that he began to grasp how little they cared for lives that were not their own. Then, turning to his companions he added, "There is another lead. The hag."

Carl stands by the side of Auriel, lending support to his words by nodding, guessing the meaning, even though he doesn’t fully understand.  When Auriel finishes, he replies in question, “The hag?  Oh yeah, the attack from the scarecrows!”  Puzzled look on his face, “How does that fit into all this?  Do we have one side getting pitted against another, playthings of a hag?”