Lawrances samples the meat, not actually needing any food or water thanks to the magic of his Ring.

Poljen thanks Morgaine graciously and sits and dines with her on the yummy trail rations.

In answer to Velon's question, Vadim states, "Anything evasive or determined enough for our screen to be ineffective. A warband of Duergar for instance isn't likely to be tricked into turning aside, and depending on the details, we might be unable to hustle you out of their path in time. And then there are other drow who very well may elude our eyes. We have an understanding with most of the major houses. They all hate us, we are men who refuse to keep to our place after all, but they're forced to acknowledge that we are too useful to get rid of. But there are exceptions to every treaty, especially down here where people and evidence can easily disappear without a trace."

The people who eat the lizard experience no apparent issues from it, and the night passes peacefully.

The next two nights pass without incident as well. A few hours after you set off the next morning however there's a commotion from one of the advanced scouts reporting in. After some rapid discussion, Vadim turns to you. "There's a snag. Band of formorians up ahead. Twisted giant creatures with some nasty psychic attacks. Normally they're easily enough to avoid, but this bunch has apparently decided to lie in ambush along a well traveled choke point. Even we would have trouble passing through unnoticed if we were on our own. With your help we could probably take them on. The safe choice would be to simply go around, but that will add two or three days to the journey. What would you prefer?"

#If we want to save the time, we can engage them easy enough. If the range of their mental attacks isn't far, we could force them out of hiding with a Sickening Radiance spell, and ruin their ambush easily. That spell will move around cover and corners, so if they didn't move, they die. If their mental abilities reach too far, I can summon a cloud of attackers that could move among them and drive them out that way.# Lawrance offers to the group. Out loud he asks "What kind of mental abilities do they have and how close do they need to be to use them? How many are they?"

Velon nods at Vadim and Lawrance.  "Yes, tell me more about their psychic attacks.  We can likely take them on.  I am not opposed to adding 2 or 3 days to our trip if absolutely necessary, but to do so multiple times seems unwise."

Vadim explains, "There are five of them camped out there. As to the psychic attacks, they have something to do with their eyes, if they can't see you, they can't make use of them. Regardless, they mostly cause great mental anguish and fear. I saw one kill a Rothe with a single look. Oh, uh, I think the closest surface creature to a Rothe would be an ox?"

"From what I've seen, they generally use those attacks from afar, and then wade in to pulverize anything still standing with great clubs."

Lia responds. " My goddess will keep our minds safe from these creatures. I say we fight them. I would rather exit from here sooner rather than later. " 

  Mari shrugs. " Dragons, giants, beholders.... something else to add to our list. " 

"Well you have my mandolin! Let's show these fromaggios the true power of the mighty and incredibly successful Silver Blaze!" Perry exclaims. 

Velon tells Vadim "we'll give it a go."  "Lawrance, Perry, what can we do to limit how well they can see us?  Invisibility?  Illusion?  I suppose I could... well, I think I could get my fire to persist for longer, and form a wall of sorts...maybe."

Lawrance nods " I can make a few of you invisible, certainly. If we rested, I could also bring up other ways of obscuring us, but not any that wouldn't also make us unable to see them, too. If someone want's to borrow my ring, we could also have that person cast the Web Spell I've stored within, while I use the Radiance to exhaust the giants trapped in it?"

"Hmmm, yes perhaps someone could.  We must find them first, and be sure we see them before they see us.  I might take you up on the invisibility, and then try my fire wall to divide them and prevent at least one or two from setting eyes upon us."

"Perry, Lia, got any tricks?"

  Lia furrows her brow and pursed her full lips. " Hmmm...let me think. I can ask Sune to make each of you bolder and less likely to give in to fear or mental attacks. Plus it makes it easier to patch you up during a battle. " 

"Those all sound like good things to me.  Don't make Poljen bolder though, he might try to take on the whole underdark!"

Morgaine looks at Poljen and whispers. " Not without me your not."  and gives him a smile that quickly turns into a grin

"Vadim, how many and where exactly are they?  Also, what tricks would your team employ aside from our own?"

Perry replies, "Well hmmmmmmmmmm, HMMMMMMMMMMMMM, I could perhaps charm a few of them while the rest of you focus the remaining. We should try to be stealthy in our approach. I can give Velon invisibility to start and I'm reasonably sneaky overall."

Cratol listens to the others as things are decided.  He is ready for a fight but is waiting for the signal to attack.  Meanwhile he flexes his muscles a bit and stretches to make sure he is loose and ready to deal some damage out.

"Ok team, that's the plan then.  Perry will make me invisible and maybe I'll take the silence stone back from Cratol for the approach.  I'll try to block their view with fire and Perry will hit them with his hypnotic spell.  Lawrance and Lia will cast their spells, and we'll call out a target for the rest of you to take down swiftly based on how well the magic works out."

Vadim, if we fail to block too many of them, please have your men cast your magic to take a few out of the fight for a moment.

With that, Velon leads the others into battle, as stealthily as possible to start.

Mari grins at the news. " I will move in close and ready an ambush. I have been wanting to try my new toy out.  " She saunters off confidently but quietly with both bladas bared. Her frost brand is icy in her main hand. 

 Lia has her companions get close before the approach begins.  She holds her amulet aloft requesting that Sune guide and protect all of them. Drawing her bow and nocking an arrow she readies herself.  

The group proceeds on. After about half an hour, you spot a relatively narrow passage ahead. The drow carefully guide a few of you close enough to spot the camp on the other side. Five of the ugliest giants you have ever seen sit and walk around. They look quite bored.

They're also not paying a huge amount of attention to their surroundings, but as the drow indicated, slipping past them without notice would require a heck of a hat trick, or perhaps some illusions.