Flux laughs as the elf drops the flask of water.

"And a good thing too! Look how quickly you dropped a glass of water, let alone a powerful acid, or liquid that ignites into flame in contact with the air!"

Flux then moves back to their original position in the formation, slightly further back, and starts rummaging again.

"And a good thing too! Look how quickly you dropped a glass of water, let alone a powerful acid, or liquid that ignites into flame in contact with the air!"  The elf had never heard an aetherborn laugh, and it was a strange sound. Most unexpectedly, it was very human.

"You tricked me?" Namura paused, her brows furrowing. "I don't understand. Why would you tell me something hurtful?"

"A warning. My creations are dangerous. Not to be played with. And you threaten to play with them. This fright was intended to scare you from playing with them, and was the best way right now other than showing you their effects for real, which would be a bit more hazardous. I'll probably be taking a few of them out at once in preparation for throwing, and don't want you to get hurt playing with them. The real ones look like this."

Flux pulls out two flasks with different shapes to the one tossed to Namura, but doesn't throw them, moving next to Namura to show her. The rounder one contains a green liquid that is more opaque then the water (it has a label with a drop of liquid and a hand with parts missing), and the less round one contains a pale blue fluid of similar opacity to the other. It has a label with an image of fire on it.

"I will never intentionally touch your hand-melting-liquids," Namura shook her head, slowing to a standstill. "So, when you threw the water at me, that was like when cubs play fight, correct?" The ranger didn't wait for an answer, instead reaching out one hand to gently bat at him. The aetherborn ducked under her arm before it connected, and Namura laughed. "With tigers, if one cub play fights, it can expect retaliation."

Let that be a warning of my own, the elf thought to herself before resuming her jog.

The thirty minutes pass by quickly, as the party makes their approach in the dark. For some, the lack of proper lighting makes it difficult to move through the forest. Thankfully, the path is forgiving to such, as the ground is smooth and easy to move across. Strange noises can be heard in the dark, coming from the foliage surrounding the party, yet the sources of such noises do not advance or interfere. While the elven village is not within sight, Namura's guidance have placed them on a proper course, as her guestimation was accurate. Veering off the path, the party was at the mercy of the dark forest and Namura's ability to get them safely into the city.

Her ability seemed to fail her, however. While not lost within the forest, she could not guide them on the path of least resistance. The foliage was thick, as the glowing colors disoriented the party, unable to safely judge depth and distance of the surroundings. Moving through a thick bush, Namura found her foot connected with nothing as it continued to sink into air. Grabbing onto the bush quickly, she was able to avoid falling into the dark chasm below. Fhestrynn was just beyond this chasm, perhaps a hundred meters or so through the thick forest. Yet the chasm spanned fifteen feet at its thinnest parts, and their darkvision could not pierce the darkness below, meaning it was easily sixty feet down.

Lero jumps forward as Namura almost falls, grabbing on to her to help pull her in.  "Well shit," ne nods to her when he's satisfied she's on solid ground and pulls a silk rope from his pack. He attaches a small grapple to the end of it and gestures for the others to step back. Silently, he twirls it twice and flings it to the other side. He gives it two hard tugs before tightening the other end around a tree and tying it tight using the years of practice he'd gotten on the ship.

Satisfied with the knot, he hops onto the rope allowing his body weight to flip him around. Slowly, he makes his way across the rope to the other side. He clamors up the cliff-side and gestures for Namura to follow.

"Thanks," Namura said breathlessly as Lero helped her get her footing. It was embarrassing that a person of her skill set couldn't notice a giant hole in the ground, but here they were.

The rogue created a line, and crossed the chasm with only marginal difficulty. Namura was next to follow, easily pulling her weight until she was safe on the other side. 

"I admire your bravery in crossing without any sort of safety."

Flux quickly pulls a rope out of their bag and creates a safety device out of it, including a large amount of excess so that it might be pulled back. They pass this section to Duncan.

"Hold this, and once I'm across and out of the device, pull it back for Arial to use. Once she's across, pull it back again and use it yourself. After that, I'll reclaim it."

"And I don't get a ride." She chuckles at Flux. "I would do better using that for sure. I have dexterity, but probably not the strength to haul myself and my gear across without a harness."

"Ah yes, let Azi, Buama, and Kraithee across as well, then I dismantle it"

Flux had been distracted, and those three had been mostly silent, so they had forgotten of their presence.

As soon as everyone is across, Lero sends his thopter to the other side to knock the knot. A single hit and the knot comes loose. Lero pulls the rope to the other side, unties it from the tree, and bundles it up for storage, "Lead on, wild one. Just... watch your step." He winks and gestures for Namura to continue. The thopter returns to his wrist holster.

"We might want to try to sneak in for a closer look while some of the group stays on the outskirts of the village," Lero suggests as they continue their trek.

Undercover of the night, the party stealthily makes their way across the chasm, not disturbing the crawling horrors which lurked just beneath them. A shame. I wanted to do a live reenactment of the 2005 King Kong chasm scene. Moving through the jungle, they find the going is significantly easier, as if the land had been artificially manipulated. Within just a few minutes, they cleared through the foliage, coming into a forty foot clearing before a wall, probably twenty or so feet tall, stood proudly to deter any forest animals from making it past the wall and into the city beyond. Whispering, Arial notes something peculiar. "Listen... nothing. There are no songs of birds sung; no noises from whatever we passed through on our way over here. It is total silence. Kind of odd, isn't it? The forest itself seems to almost shun this place and its inhabitants." Scanning the wall, you do note that there is no movement to be seen, though a yellow-orange glow seems to come from whatever lies within the walls.

Lero gestures for the group to stand by as they approach the wall.  He mounts the grapple to his thopter, sends it up, and has it drop the grapple on the opposite side of the wall.  He then pulls the rope until it snags and has a strong anchor point. "Try to be silent if you follow," he says as the thopter returns to its holster. He then climbs the wall with ease and disappears into the darkness above.  

Climbing to the top of the wall, you land quietly on the walkway, which is about 5 feet thick. As you move to the far side to get a better view, you hear soft footprints following up the wall and landing beside you. Turning, you note Arial's smiling face, as her eyes are concealed by goggles. She draws close, whispering into your ear, "Can't let you have all the fun, Lero." Nudging you with her elbow, she turns her gaze to the village below. Looking out at the village, you note the soft glow coming from several streetlamps, as the rest of the village is covered in darkness. Several dark figures move about in the darkness, and you see some corpses illuminated by the streetlamps below. Stairs descend into the village, approximately 20 feet to your left.

Continuing to be silent and sticking to the shadows, Lero makes his way down the stairs, hopping down on the side of them when he's sure he's low enough, and takes cover behind the nearest building for a better view of the street. He waves Arial down after he gets into a good position.

Flux is quick to follow Arial, but doesn't climb all the way onto the wall, preferring to hold on and look. Also, they were struggling to climb already, and probably couldn't swing their legs up to get up. They whisper to Arial.

"A little help, Arial? Those corpses don't bode well..."

"Are they even elven corpses?"  Azi jumps towards the front, he slowly draws his bow and begins looking for anything immediately dangerous to the party while the rest investigate.  "I'll try and watch our perimeter, if you all would like to get a closer look at what killed these people."

"A little help, Arial? Those corpses don't bode well..." Arial, begrudgingly, pulls Flux over the wall. Whispering to him, she says, "This is a stealth mission. You stay up he..." Azi leaps up onto the wall too. "Are they even elven corpses?"  For the love of aether... "I'll try and watch our perimeter, if you all would like to get a closer look at what killed these people." At least he offered to be useful. "Fine. You two stay up here, and keep out of sight. I'm going down with Lero to scout ahead. He'll probably get himself killed if I'm not there. Tell everyone else to stay up here." With that said, she quickly navigates down the stairs to the village floor.

While Lero isn't able to make out the figures completely, Arial is well-adapted to her goggles. Moving from building to building, they come within 20 feet of two figures: a pair of elves, one male, one female, dressed in dark cloaks and leather armor. Listening in, you can hear them casually talking to each other. "... wants those hidden villagers alive. That's your fault." "I only killed five of them! One of them was Gaegun, that annoying old man." The female laughs. "Yeah... He needed to die. With this many villagers unaccounted for, if we find them, Chaxaxeuduhm, would reward us greatly." A grotesque creature, in the shape of a man, but with crimson red swirling patterns of aether lining the body, moves towards them. As it comes within range, you see a tail, sweeping along behind it, and a beard of fanged tentacles flowing from its ashen face. red aether seems to slowly seep out from an obvious wound, where it is missing one eye. "You two! Keep searching. You'd hate to have Chaxaxeuduhm displeased with your work, now... would you?" The two seem terrified, as they quickly move off, the bearded creature dragging two corpses off into the darkness.

Lero signs to Arial that they should return to the rest of the group to report what they've found.

They stealthily move through the village back to the safety of the wall and Lero reports what they heard, "It looks like some red aetherborn with tails led the attack and were joined by elves. There's a small group still in hiding somewhere in the village." He whispers this and is sure to keep the group low on the wall, "We need to get out of here. The village is taken; there's nothing we can do for them without an army of our own. Have any of you heard of Chaxaxeuduhm?"

Namura's brain was preoccupied, running through certain recent events. Before she had started this mission, she had considered herself to be a Lone Ranger. It was her and her shortswords against the rest of the world. But now these people who she had barely met were saving her from plummeting to her death, play fighting, and calling her names like "wild one." She was still unsure if that last thing was a good one.

She was so lost in thought that she found herself at the back of the group, instead of her usual place at the front. She was one of the last ones to climb up the rope, and she decided it would be best to let Arial and Lero have some privacy. 

"It looks like some red aetherborn with tails led the attack and were joined by elves. There's a small group still in hiding somewhere in the village," Lero reported back in hushed tones. "We need to get out of here. The village is taken; there's nothing we can do for them without an army of our own. Have any of you heard of Chaxaxeuduhm?"

Namura shook her head, the name didn't ring any bells. "We can't just leave innocent people here to be slaughtered," she protested in a whisper. "We can't do nothing. We have to save them."