Roxana looks over at Spira. "Well, it seemed like a good guess," she says quietly, so that the girl would not hear. "So it seems there are shape-changers down here. And even those who aren't. Wonder how many. And why are they here?"

Rash pauses. The girl doesn't seem to be particularly fond of the Lords Below. After a moment, he sighs.

"Who are you?" he asks her quietly. "You do not seem especially fond of the Lords Below... but you're here anyway..."

"Who am I?" the girl snorts "I'm Tethis, just another 'morsel'. Nice to meet you!"

"Hold on..." Tethis now becomes a little confused... and a little suspicious "She" and she points to Spira "spoke as if you were Lords from Below... While you" and she points to Rash "are speaking as if you were not! So... what is the truth?"

Rash, in his incredible wisdom (that being 8) decides to actually answer her. He leans in and whispers.

"Okay, so, between you and me... we're here on a rescue mission. The idiots top-side think we're Lords from Below for now, but I don't expect that to last too long when we actually meet the real deal..."

"Rescue?" Tethis' eyes light up, looking into Rash's as she comes near "So you came all the way here to rescue... me!?"

Anita almost magically materializes between the two of them, forcing them to widen their distance: "Not exactly!" the ex-Zhentarim replies - perhaps a little annoyed "It's the 'other morsel' we came to save!"

"Blossom?" the girl in the skimpy shell costume opens her eyes wide, incredulous "Save him? But he came himself to join the Lords from Below! He's one of them!"

"The morsel we're looking for is called Mival" Anita clarifies.

"Ah, he gave me that name too, when he showed up here a few days ago..." Tethis agrees "But since he joined the Lords from Below, he chose the name Blossom for himself".

Rash pauses... he gives Anita a little look.

"There might still be guards who could hear us," Rash points out, his own tone of voice just a little bit annoyed, but he doesn't protest further. He addresses the girl again.

"Madam... we had no idea you were here, if I'm being honest," the half-orc wizard admits. "But now we know you're here... I think none of us have any intention of leaving you here to face whatever fate those things have in store for you. I hope that this 'Blossom' isn't really the same person as Mival... but if he is, maybe there's a chance we can still talk some sense into him. If not... at least we can tell his mother with certainty that he's gone so she doesn't have to wonder for the rest of her life."

Roxana comes over to join the conversation. "If you wish to get out, we will definitely help you.  Where are you from Tethis? Rassalantar?" She isn't sure what to make of what the girl said about Mival. After a pause she returns to conversation with Tethis. "I assume you can't leave on your own because the exit is guarded. It might be better if we look for Mival before we cause a commotion bringing you out."

"Maybe..." Anita looks around, slightly embarrassed "Maybe you're right, Rash. I acted on impulse."

Meanwhile, Tethis seems genuinely amazed by the fact that complete strangers are declaring that they want to save her: "You... would really do this for me? You will try to save me, to free me?"

She runs her hand through her hair in an instinctive gesture, as if tidying it up would help her to tidy up her thoughts too: "I don't worry about the guards... And no, I'm not from Rassalantar, I don't live among people, usually, but among the waves..." her gaze becomes dreamy, as if from nostalgia for a past much better than the present. "But I can't leave, as long as the lords from Below have my mantle. Worse still, as long as they have my mantle, they can do whatever they want with me... At any time, by destroying it, they could condemn me to a slow and painful death. So, as long as they have it, I am forced to obey them, to be their slave, essentially. In fact, if you fought them, I would probably be forced... to fight you!" (though it's not immediately clear how a girl in a skimpy shell dress could actually 'fight' enemies with weapons and armor) "But if you could somehow get my mantle back, then" her eyes glistening at the prospect "I would be free again!"

"Would you like to speak to Blossom?" Tethis sums up. "I... I think I could arrange it... I could go and call him while you wait here... But I need a good reason to convince him to come and meet you. What do you think I should say to him?"

"You live among the waves?" Roxana asks, a bit perplexed by the girl's answer. 'Is she imagining things or is it actually true?' she wonders. "Well, if you could assist Tethis that would be really helpful. And of course we would help you get out of here, whether you offered to help us or not."  She considers her question about what to tell Mival or Blossom. "I guess we don't want to say too much in case he truly does not want to return. Maybe you could just tell him that you were sent to bring him to talk to some other people. If he questions who, you could tell him you were sworn not to say." 

She looks to the others. "Perhaps you have better words to use than I do?" 

Tethis looks dreamily at the mention of waves: "Of course, waves! Where else!? The water is so fluid... so free... I miss the sea water; thank goodness there's some water here too..." and starts splashing around a bit with her feet.

At the suggestion of words for Blossom, she warns: "Blossom is one of the Lords from Below... he won't come based on such general indications. You should give him a reason that is appealing to him... or that interests him.. or that makes him curious..."

Rash considers for a moment...

"I wonder if simply telling him the truth, that a search party was sent by his mother, would get his attention...?" the half-orc muses.

Tethis makes a dubious expression. “The Lords from Below aren’t exactly known for their empathy and good feelings… Blossom wasn’t with them when they did it, but they still didn’t hesitate to cruelly deceive me and enslave me under threat of death… But I’ll leave that up to you to decide. If you want me to tell him that, I’ll tell him.”

"Perhaps not, but it might get his attention..." Rash sighs. He turns to the rest of the party.

"But I'm not exactly the master of words around here, though... what do the rest of you think we can tell him that will get the kid to talk to us?"

"But as far as how to get him to come . . . Rash, I agree that telling him a truth would be the best way to get him to come.  Just not that particular truth.  Either he's really joined the Lords Below, or he's been magically convinced he sincerely desires to.  Confronting him with the memory of his mother ... yes, but later.  Once we've started a crack of ... anything.  Any emotion will do at first, so long as it isn't instant destructive rage towards us personally.  Even a bit of ... concern.,"  A wicked grin suddenly crosses her face, and she lowers her voice to minimize the chance of any enemy overhearing while speaking just loudly enough for the two women she addresses to hear her.  "Tethis . . . how do you think he'd respond if you came to him in pretended terror and told him a tiefling of the sort you first thought me had suddenly appeared, and that as her eyes flashed red" (she changes them as she speaks with another whispered koan) "she proclaimed herself only the herald of a mighty being claiming to be a Lord Below, who had just terrified the guards above into deserting their posts without even the thought of a fight ... Anita?"  She winks at the fiercely protective ex-Zhentarim as if to imply that the best way to avert a potential rival is to scare her away with a display of the impressive form she assumed for a moment above with her little illusion trick. 

 "And that that 'Lord Below' was offering him a special place in the new order of things that she intends to usher in.  His choice as to whether that place is at her side, or under her feet.  That ought to pique his interest enough to get him to come meet us -- wherever you think would be most believable, as far as possible from the other Lords and somewhere small enough to limit what he can do if he lashes out anyway.  And you needn't mention the rest of us at first.  Just ... oh yes, it would also be good if we met him somewhere the rest could be hidden from Blossom when he enters."

Even as she speaks, though, some uneasy memory is niggling at her; some recollection of childhood tales or whispered legends floating among the firesides alike of commoner and king.  Some hint that a more tragic end may await the heroes of Longsaddle than they found in their first quest, no matter what they do.  Or, if a different set of legends be true, perhaps not.  She strains her mind to recall what she can of the cryptobiology and particularly the ... reproductive, or rather replicative, cycle of doppelganger and other shapeshifter biology.

=========-***=========

Arcana 7

Medicine 17

[[ OOC: Spira fails to recall anything in particular of the cryptobiology and particularly the... reproductive, or rather replicative, cycle of doppelganger and other shapeshifter biology. ]]

Tethis seems skeptical even in this case: "If it seems like a good idea to you, I can try to tell him... but while there is a chance that he will get curious and come... there is also a chance that he will instead alert the other Lords from Below, whom he has already joined and he already knows - and that they will all come together to eliminate... the competition!"

"As for hiding, those of you who don't want to be seen can hide up the spiral staircase..." the girl in the skimpy shell costume suggests, "but I can't arrange the meeting in a room other than this one, because I have to guard it."

Rash smiles.

"I'll meet him while the rest of you hide... you can tell him that there's a single emissary. If his first instinct is to attack... then he's in for a rather nasty surprise."

[OOC: I think Rash still has Armor of Agathys up, plus 5 points of Arcane Ward... if Mival/Blossom decides to hit first and ask questions later, it's going to hurt him more than it hurts Rash. If there's still plenty of duration left on his Armor of Agathys, Rash could even ritual-cast an Unseen Warrior.]

Tethis heartily advises everyone not to follow her: "I'm going to call Blossom... Please wait here! If you follow me and they discover you... it will be my life and yours! They will force me to fight you - and then I will kill you, or you will kill me. Neither of these outcomes is what we want, I hope!" she wags a warning finger "So wait here for me."

The party then hides, climbing part of the spiral staircase, while Rash, a solemn and solitary heroic figure, waits. Several minutes pass... but finally the cheerful splash of Tethis' footsteps announces her return - and she is not alone! In fact, she is with a young man whose description matches Mival's.

The young man remains for now near the narrow corridor from which he has just emerged together with the 'receptionist' dressed in shells and, fixing her green eyes on the half-orc wizard, asks: "You are the emissary, then. What do you think I can do for you?"

[[OOC: did Rash have time to ritual-cast Blinn's Unseen Warrior without endangering his Armor of Agathys?]]

Rash takes a moment to size up the young man. He doesn't look like a monster... but he's here, and he certainly doesn't seem to be a prisoner.

"It's Blossom, right?" Rash says with a gruff but friendly tone. "Alright, I probably shouldn't beat around the bush too much here: there's someone who sent me, someone who thinks your talents are wasted in this pit. Tell me, what did the Lords from Below offer you?"

"Ooohh!" the young man suddenly takes on an expression of extreme wonder "She sent you!? Kara?! My mother!?" (and this without the half-orc wizard ever mentioning her explicitly...) "I never thought... Really...?" and his expression becomes questioning - but then sad instead "But she doesn't know... She doesn't know... I... What should we tell her? She... She deserves better. She deserved a real son. Not one like me. Not a Lord from Below".

The green eyes scrutinize Rash with confidence, as if they were really asking him for advice... although, undoubtedly, the surprise must not have favored the clarity and completeness of the young man's expression.