Crispy stares at Cade for a few seconds longer, while patting Chubby on the back, like telling a vicious faithful attack companion to back down - everything was ok. She tried to get the goblin to open up, but he was too deep in self loathing and pity. She stopped trying to dig for more information. There would be a chance he would NOT contribute but still want our food, our resources, and that she would NOT stand for. She made that clear.

If push came to shove, Crispy would kill Cade in mere moments, painfully, swiftly. She wasn't beneath killing him while he slept, as well. Wouldn't be the first or last time she did that. But she let it go. Now it was up to him.

She grabbed Evrik's arm, not in a threatening manner. This one she liked. She shook her head very slowly, her eyes unwavering, boring into his - and it was a few uncomfortable seconds before she spoke to the dwarf. "Don't believe that one. I have an intuition most people don't have. He is not who he says he is. There is no way." 

Cade listens, but pointedly and closely watches Evrik. Because he was not playing the 'sneaky' root thing. Even if the spore thing was dead at this point. His eyes go wide at the story of a curse. And against his better judgement, Cade shoots a sympathetic glance. "No wonder why..." He mutters mysteriously under his breathe. At the last question, he smirks and crosses his arms. "Consider'n how well you and the rest took the prince's -- King's story, ain't much of a point of me telling mines after considering bits of it is... pretty out there."

At that, Cade gets back to his feet, and makes a show of dusting himself off. "While I can't agree with going this whole southwesterly route if its leading us to that mushroom man's home, for what little a goblin's word is worth to ya, thanks for clearing the air fer me. Now if ya don't mind. I'd like trying to have words with the new King. Preferably 'fore we move on." Cade politely waits. But seeing Crispy pull the dwarf aside, Cade will just lightly nod his head, then make his way over to the Quaggoth. 

This time with a certain level of reverence, he kneels down and inclines his head forward. In what can best be described as a slurry of multiple languages tied into one, Cade speaks or tries to speak to the prince. There are some vague hints to dwarvish and elvish. But not enough to form a proper word, let alone a sentence just by listening in on the conversation. 

For the DM:

 If when he looks up and sees a lack of understanding however, Cade clasps one hand over the other, and just bows one more time before backing away to his old corner. 

"Well, I don't care anymore. I gave you two chances." Crispy says over her shoulder, not really caring, in Cade's direction. If the Goblin had a story, and wanted to share it, as far as she was concerned, she gave him two chances to share it. Now, her and Chubby had bigger fish to fry.

She sits and rests against the cave wall with her hand on her blades, and let's Chubby take the next watch.

The quaggoth would look at Evrik, sizing him up a bit as he made his apologies "Pay it no heed, but do not let it happen again. I only show a modicum of respect to you, because you have shown it to me, until now." he said somewhat flatly. "Unfortunately, I feel my life would be prolonged by staying with you, even if I am against it. I am no fool as to believe I could make it down here by myself, even in this form."

The quaggoth then turning quickly to face the Human, keeping his eyes locked directly into her own, his expression that of one saying 'yeah, uh-huh' as she spewed her words like so much vomit. Finally, when she finished, he interjected saying "Of course I speak elvish, I am an ELF turned Monster you  fool. A human whore such as yourself  would never understand. I can tell just by your mannerisms that you grew up in some ghetto, or hole in the wall, probably selling yourself by the age of five... poor thing, needing to get by in such a dishonorable way.... I have already told you where my Kingdom is, wench. Perhaps if your brain was trained to think about more than 'when your next customer is coming' you would have heard. As for my capture? easily a poor decision on my part to leave my entourage for some privacy, a luxury rarely afforded royalty, and spread lavishly on urchins like you."

Then to Immotichey, "Congratulations beast, you know how to follow your instinct to survive." his eyes turned dark as he rose up to his full height before saying "Perhaps I should inform these 'people' what your species does to it's 'friends?' Shall I? I shall. Lizardfolk are known for eating their comrades when they get hungry enough, or the mood strikes them. They are savages, no better than Wild hyenas! Look back on what he did to Ront.. Not that that dullard didn't deserve it. But that wasn't a protective reaction.. that's his natural instinct. Keep an eye open when you sleep." he would finish, embellishing every word matter-of-factly.

Then, to Arthasis he simply glared, violent thoughts coursing through his head, but he was hesitant to act on them, something about the warlock was overtly threatening aside from his words. Perhaps he sensed the power behind him.

Finally going off to his own corner, only to be approached by Cade.

He would watch the tiny imp prostrate himself somewhat, allowing himself to bathe in it before responding in kind, some frustration lingering in his tone from all the prior talks. leaning down and speaking to Cade, [Slow-Undercommon] "And what could you know goblin, of my plight?" he says his tone mildly curious.

Darendil was, however on enough alert of the others he'd just insulted.

Shuushar would not, his fatty chin folding out like that of a frog. "As I have said, I am Shuushar, the Awakened. My title is thusly, because I have not fallen to madness like so many of my brethren. ANd I wish to bring enlightenment to them, in hopes of turning them away from their evil ways. However, the one future I cannot see is mine own. Thusly, I cannot be sure if I will succeed. I have also taken a vow of pacifism. I will not fight, anyone, for any reason, even should it mean my demise. This is my desire. I am unsure of how I attained enlightenment, but one day, the fog that clouded my mind vanished, and I could see clearly, the rain, was gone. I do not mind if we entreat to the Myconids first, but I implore we go to my home as well, else my destiny may ever be out of reach." Evrik could easily tell that either he spoke in full blunt honesty, or was atleast convinced that what he said was true.

Suddenly, Arthasis, and Evrik pass out simultaneously. Collapsing to the floor in almost perfect unison. There was no indication of an attack, it was just the escapee's. No lingering, or detectable magic.

As the group wakes up and shuffles around in the mad chaos of getting ready to move on, Chubby just stands there, patiently waiting for everyone to line up.  "I'll take point." he bluntly observes as everyone is jockeying for their place in line.  "Lady Eldrith and Crispy, you're up here with me.  Stay close on my tail!  I may send either or both of you out ahead, periodically, to scout for danger.  We'll take it nice and slow, to make sure we can all walk nice and quietly as to not awake any of the beasties who surely hide behind every nook and cranny."

‘Unsettling’ is what Arthasis would have called the horrid nightmare he just had. He may have been willing to strike a bargain with one fiend but now it seemed like there were way to many extraplanar beings intrested in his actions. He had to tread curefully because even though he knew almost nothing about his patron, the fiend surely would not accept any hint of dissent if one considered their only previous encounter. After all he was granting the warlock powers, powers which Arthasis did not want to lose.

He tried to shake it off for now and get some more sleep before they would continue their journey through the Underdark. Nobody could know how long it would take them to leave this place but seeing that his fellow prisoners eagerly decided to go even deeper into it, Arthasis had to prepare for the worst.

When he woke and saw everyone readying themselves for their eventual departure, he asked one more time, “Where do we go now? North or did you all decide on the route to certain death? In any case, we have to plan our march. Any suggestions?”

Evrik wakes on the cold stone floor. He shudders and looks around nervously. The nightmare was so real. There were recognizable parts to the vision but in all, only terror. His mind races, Is it this place? Is it my past? Is it my future?  All he is sure of was the dreadful feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He blinks his eyes, slowly coming back into the moment. His last recollection was standing near the group trying to understand some of their motivations. Everyone was still here, he could hear them talking about movement, responsibilities, etc.  Had they decided on a direction? he wondered. Slowly rising to his feet and gathering his belongings he hears Chubby talking about taking point. He walks up to the Dwarf and the rest of the group.

"Hey, uh... how long was I out there? Did something hit us, or me? Did I miss anything?  I heard you talking about taking point, did we decide on a direction? I have a quill an ink if anyone has some parchment, we can try to keep up with our path so we can at least know where we've been. I have an old letter with a bit of space on the back that I can use to start, but some blank pages would come in handy."

He looks over at Immotichey and says "If you don't mind, I'll stick tight with you as we move out. You seem to keep your wits about you and Chubby and Crispy here are all but inseparable. I'm still ciphering on those other two."

Crispy grew warm, then hot as the Quaggoth "prince" spew out his retort. At the mention of words like "whore", "next customer", "ghetto", and "selling yourself", Crispy lost control and screamed like a wild rabid animal, drew her blade, and thrusted the tip up to touch the soft spot of the Quaggoth's jaw, held it there, and growled through gritted teeth:

"WHAT did you call me...? I dare you. WHAT did you call me?" 

The quaggoth looked back at Crispy and said "Oh, I'm so terribly sorry.. It must have been my imagination, sicne I didn't show up until the end.. but we could hear you moaning from upstairs every-time she whipped you, and your response was to grope her, and otherwise sexually assault her and thats just what I saw coming down the hole..... And since, I have only heard you complain that you didn't get to ride her. So if you're not a whore, what are you?"

Crispy gripped her short sword blade so tight her knuckles turned white. She leaned into his ear.

"What am I? Your last mistake, you ******* fraud." 

In one swift motion, she shoves the blade deep through his jaw into his brain, holding it here and watching him die.

It happened far too quickly. In one instance, Cade had been working up the nerve to reveal a truth. And in the next, there was screaming, growling, and then suddenly blood dripping down onto the cave floor.

The shock crippled him almost as surely as fear kept him from further engaging the priestess. Now the priest so-called King lay dead, and the woman responsible... If there was even a sliver of a chance of the goblin going to sleep that night, it disappeared after that event. The others are given more than plenty of time to look the Quaggoth before Cade steps in to remove the corpse.

If they do not, and if the lizardfolk doesn't beat him to the punch, Cade will see to the corpses removal from the alcove. He might be small, but there was a strength there uncanny for one so small stature. The whole time that he moves it, aside from the Kuo-toa, he avoids meeting anyone else's eyes; especially Crispy. And over the course of the long hours (provided nothing happens), he sets aside the prince's belongings, and using whatever stone he can gather, he forms a cairn about the quaggoth. For the remainder of the night, he holds an unlit vigil over the body, hiding behind or nearby the cairn as necessary to avoid detection.

Hopefully the lingering stench of sewage helped with that as well. Otherwise, he spends it in prayer to helm while fighting off more conflicting instincts to re-purpose the corpse. Close to rest's end there are deep bags under his eyes, and his stomach is all the emptier. But he ignores it, and instead pipes upon returning and realizing where conversation was going, "Unless... I'm needed elsewhere... I'll... stick to the rear and keep watch." He offers and yawns.

"By Abbathor's Hammer, what have you done?!" Evrik exclaims as he sees Crispy, finally pushed passed the edge, quickly dispatch the Quaggoth. Evrik ran up, knelt beside limp body and said a brief Elvish prayer he recalled from his studies as he touched the beast. Whether plagued by mental illness or not, Evrik wanted Darendill's soul to pass on to the next realm with good graces.

"Everyone. Stay your weapons. We're barely a day out of quickly becoming spider food and our numbers are dwindling way too fast. It's all wearing a little thin, but let's try to just keep what numbers we have in one piece if we can? Crispy, I certainly see your point, the brute was way out of line. But I'm fairly certain he was also a few marbles short of a full deck. No telling what was going to come out of his mouth next. But he could yet have played a part."

Evrik takes a deep breath searching for inner calmness. "But we have to move on. Are we heading Southwest? Who's taking the lead? I'd suggest Chubby or myself, unless someone else grew up in dark world of stone like us and can see through this gloom. And is anyone good at scrounging for food, water, and the like? I also have pen and ink as I mentioned so one of us can keep up with where we've been."

"He did play a part." Crispy said, wiping blood off her exquisite military blade and sheathing it. "And now his part is over." 

She looked at the dwarf for a moment more before speaking, his reaction typical, and understandable. She puts her hands on her hips. "Don't misunderstand me. I'm not crazy. I just have.. a temper." She pats him on the back, and smiles. "I'm good now."

"You, though," she says over her shoulder, "You're too stressed. Relax."

While the company continues to discuss directions and roles, Evrik takes a moment to examine the Tentacle Rod. Recollecting mention of the item in some of the tomes from his past, he tries to recall what he learned so long ago. (Arcana: 19)

I do not currently have access to any of the dice rollers spoiler buttons Etc so consider this post out of character.

Because you spent an extensive amount of time with the magical armor everick would feel slightly safer from electrical discharges. Everett has found an armor of resistance with resistance to thunder damage.

Chubby has found an armor of vulnerability. It gives him resistance to slashing damage, while giving him vulnerability to bludgeoning and piercing damage. If he should try to take it off he will find he cannot.

Everett has also attuned to the tentacle rod. It is pseudo sentient meaning it will respond to your will but has no will of its own. Everett now has two attuned items. Chubby has one attuned and cursed item.

     The lizardman then walks over to Crispy and hesitantly places a clawed hand on her shoulder. "I know that was for only yourself, but thank you anyways..," he pauses for a moment but then just moves on. 

     Immotichey grunts at the cleric. "He has been a thorn in our side long enough. She did us a favor." He paces around as the others prepare themselves for the day. "Also, there are other ways to manage the conditions here," he says with a wink - the bottom eyelid closing first, then the top.  

     "Are we ready?" he calls back to the group. Once everyone appears to be gathered he says, "Keep an eye out for the twins. They may have come this way too," 

Crispy tenses a moment as Immotichey touches her, then relaxed as he spoke. "Well." She smiled back, "At least you get it."

She tightens up her armor, puts on her cloak, checks her sword holster, and follows everyone southwest.

As crispy puts on the cloak she feels suddenly quieter stealthier more deceptive and persuasive. Crispy has found a piwafwi cloak of elvenkind

Chubby: “Cade, I need your excellent eyes. How about you follow right behind me?  I’ll lead this merry band of misfits outta here, but I could use your help as a second set of eyes, in case I miss anything.”