Shrugging at Velon's hidden question and admitting his lack of knowledge of this species, Lawrance Nibbles at some of the appetizers, his lack of appetite from his Ring letting him focus more on the conversation.

"We have an amazing chef at our home base, also. A true wizard of desserts and appetizers that we'd be dearth to let leave our employ. Perhaps we should them in touch with each other so they can share recipes?" Lawrance takes significant time during the dinner to study each of the three, committing to memory the many aspects of their individualities that would allow him to contact them through the Sending magic, later.

When asked about the details, he responds "Our main goal is to prevent The Dragon Queen from entering and lay waste to our world. Her cultists are calling for all the dragons who want to see this happen to battle. The artifact we seek will help to prevent this.The destruction of the Flayer's abhorrent society would be a bonus."

Zz'Pzora looks at Velon oddly as he starts behaving erratically. "You want me to give you Gabble? Oh, are you trying to rescue her or something? Cute, but I don't control people like that. Well, not anymore at least. I've found over the years that that sort of thing doesn't get me the best use of a person's talents. She stays because she gets a good life out of it. You want her to go with you, talk her into it."

"If you want me to help convince her to go instead of convincing her to stay... Well, now that would be pretty pricey, I do really like her cooking. As to this toast, certainly, I'll drink to possibilities."

She raises her cup to you and then takes a drink, sighing with pleasure as she does so, "Now then, as to the nature of this possible deal. You need this artifact, want the mindflayers destroyed, and your escort wants me gone as well. I would not mind seeing the mindflayers gone, but they're not really my concern. The prospect of a new lair is interesting, but I'm comfortable here. From what I know of the city, I will require a notably larger staff to make proper use of the place as well."

"So, in exchange for my assistance, I will ask for three things. First, that we do a clean sweep, ensure that none of the abominations survive to cause trouble later. Second, that I get three quarters of the loot after you take your prize. Thirdly, that you help me with the initial steps to secure the new lair and servants to man it. That last should be simple enough, when the mindflayers lose control of their slaves, there will be plenty of them with nowhere to go, no homes to return to. Just need to find a few dozen that can be convinced to take a better deal than the tentacle faces offered."

Velon just says “I was just going to tell you that there’s poison in your cup, but perhaps you already know.”

She smiles and says, "Perhaps next time be a little quicker with the reveal? Not to worry, it is supposed to be there."

She picks up the cup again and looks within thoughtfully, "I do relatively frequent business with various factions of the drow. In such company it is practically an insult to not get served poison from time to time. I find it prudent and useful to inure myself to the few poisons my kind are normally susceptible to. If you were not aware, one's body can be taught to fight off most varieties of poison by ingesting small quantities."

"Some of them enhance flavors in particularly interesting ways, so the exercise has had some pleasant surprises."

"Oh, ah, right, yeah, of course.  Makes sense."  Velon sits back down and looks at nothing but his plate while eating silently.

Lia looks from Velon to their host with concern.  She glances at her drink and decides to stop drinking at this point.  " The first and third terms are easily taken care of. The 2nd point...." She shrugs and defers to Velon.  

Lawrance nods and sends through the link #Sounds good to me. With her help, this may be easier than we planned for. And more quickly accomplished.#

"Well I for one would say those terms seem very fair! I mean, let's all be real here for a moment. The vast majority of us are already struggling with attuning to all these crazy magical items in general. We might only want a few of the items anyway. I see no need to get overly greedy, though I call dibs on any beautiful musical instruments we find. Besides, isn't the real prize here friendship?" Perry asks with a grin. 

Perry eats the pastries. When she says she literally eats drow poison for breakfast Perry almost coughs up some pastry. "That's hot," he remarks in a low whisper. 

Velon looks at Perry as if you say "you're a really weird guy, Perry" regarding the 'hot' comment.  The paladin tries to recover from his prior embarrassment, tugging at his armor near his neck and clearing his throat.  "I think we can agree to your terms for the most part, but we cannot spend more than a week making our clean sweep and helping you get the place organized.  We have a war to win.  On that note, if any of the spoils include a powerful Tiamat killing item or something else that will greatly aid us in the war, we get first choice.  If that sways the balance beyond your three quarters we will do our best to make it up to you in gold, or I personally will have to owe you.  You would of course have to trust me, and have to hope that I live long enough to return, but either way I will do my best."

Velon trying to recover...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLWFcva2AYQ

"Oh good, it sounds like we are in general agreement then. If there are any claim issues with the loot, we'll just have to see about this trust thing at that time."

"I presume I'll have to convince your escort to leave me be, at least for the time being. That should be simple enough. Along with this move presumably filling the terms of their contract on me, I could simply offer to tell them who hired me to conduct those raids in the first place. It would be valuable information for them to sell."

Your hostess finishes her tea and puts the cup down, "But on to the plan. I have never seen the place in person. It hasn't been worth the risk to approach. But I have heard a few salient details. The city is generally composed of a few hundred Illithid in humanoid forms. They are served by a few thousand slaves, mostly duergar, gnomes, dwarves and drow, probably some Derro, elves and humans as well. They're all mind controlled, so they'll all fight to the death if instructed, but they're also collectively slow, stupid, and lacking in fighting skills. They're more like a bunch of easier to kill zombies than any sort of actual army."

"Illithid themselves are physically weak, but quite dangerous in regards to psychic power. They can crush or control minds fairly easily. They also have a rather disgusting habit of consuming brains. I suggest not allowing yourself to get grabbed by those facial tentacles of theirs, that's usually a prelude to ending up with an empty skull. Fair warning, I hope you have some means of protecting your minds from such influence, or this endeavor is doomed. They are also cowards at heart, they will send slaves at you all day rather than face you themselves if given the option. The colony is controlled by a central brain. Its literally just a big brain sitting in a pool. It is completely immobile and physically helpless, but also stronger mentally than several of the regular illithid combined. The brain is simultaneously the most difficult target in the city to tackle and the city's greatest weak point."

"I'm going to assume that you would prefer to not slog through and kill all of the brain dominated slaves so we can methodically wipe out the illithid when they run out of bodies. Frankly I'm not a fan of that approach myself. It would be safer in some ways, but killing gets more than a little tedious after the first few hundred. The main alternative is to strike directly at the elder brain before anything else. Succeed, and all those slaves that were defending the illithid are suddenly capable of tearing them apart, or at least, you know, running away and not getting in our way. Of course, even if sneaking in was a guarantee, that would put us in the middle of a city full of hostiles while trying to kill the thing they most want to protect, so its a rather precarious gambit."

"I would suggest one of two approaches. Either I attack openly and draw attention away from the brain for you guys to slip in, or we all try to get in there together. The latter would seem to carry a higher risk of early detection, but would have the advantage of me actually being there to help when the enemy realizes what we're up to and start converging."

"Either way, I would suggest having at least some more hands for this. To block off escape routes if nothing else. Are the Bregan D'earthe here to help you with this, or are they just guides?"

"I really prefer option 2, going in together if we can. Is there perhaps some way we could burrow our way into a reasonable location after scouting the area out with magic? I believe the Faux-rae's are just meant to guide us, not actually fight sadly," Perry responds.

"Let's scout it out and then decide, but yes I prefer to stay together.  Perhaps we could even fly in invisibly, if we can find the brain ahead of time."

"We have managed to obtain a way to shield our minds, thankfully.  We'll need to do that at least a day in advance, I believe."

"Do we have any other fancy magical means to gather information on our target or how best to approach? Perhaps other forms of Divination magic that would be useful?" Perry asks.

Lawrance offers "We could fall back on the Arcane Eye again. It doesn't last long, but once we are close, we can use it to scout ahead for a few hundred feet. Also, Gamliel would be able to scout as a small creture for us, and report back on what he finds."

*You could ask me first, you know.?*

#Hush,.Your fingernail, remember?# 

*Maybe you should be my familiar for a while.* 

"With preparation, I can have a few different options but you're right - we should have our protections active a bit before we enter their territory."

Mari looks at the others.  " I can go out and scout.  Maybe with Poljen not far behind for backup if needed.  I don't trust familiars to do this properly.  They see but not with context.   Whatever everyone wishes though...." She shrugs and waits. 

Zz'Pzora spreads her hands, "Divination magic is not my forte, and such is difficult to make work down here regardless. Along with the scouting, we could try and see if any flumphs are hanging about when we get closer. They're weird monsters, they feed on the energy passively given off by psionic beings, but for some reason often give advice to help people avoid or fight mindflayers and their ilk."

"But that is perhaps enough of that for now. You have had a long journey to get here, and it will be a while before dinner is prepared. Perhaps we could have another song? Or I could convince Balaena to dance, ignore the glowering, she is really quite good at it." She points at a hallway, "For anyone wishing to freshen up, there is a large hot spring through there. Its really quite delightful, and big enough for all of us to bathe at once if so inclined."

Lawrance perks up at that last bit , saying "Both sound amazing, dear host! The bath, at least. " He adds, with a sideways glance at the half demon. "As well as time to prepare plans and spells for the tunnels ahead. Would you happen to have any spell books I could study from, that you may have 'acquired' from previous visitors?" 

  Lia smiles at this offer.  " I will go freshen up.  Thanks for your hospitality. " She heads to the pool, removes her armor and clothes and enters the pool.  Lia closes her eyes as she enjoys the hot water.  

   Mari nods at Lia subtly and follows her out.  She keeps a careful watch out for Lia while she bathes. 

"I'll go tell our guides what's going on, and try to ease any concerns they may have."  Velon thus heads outside expecting to find their guides less than pleased.

The bath area proves to be a large open grotto of semi smooth reddish stone, and the bath itself is more of a small lake, perhaps a hundred fifty paces across at its longest, and full of remarkably clear water. There seems to be enchantments involved here, since the water is almost hot enough to burn at one end, and almost freezing at the other, with multiple gradients in between. In addition, any dirt that Lia scrubs off rapidly vanishes along with any soap suds. The entire area is moderately lit by globes of light hanging from the ceiling. A chest near the middle contains brushes of various sizes and bars of scented lye soap. About the only thing missing might be a few attendants with towels and robes.

Outside the lair, Vadim appears shortly after Velon emerges, "Well, you're not dead, and judging by your expression, no one else is. So, what's the plan? We can set up a rather nasty ambush out here, traps that  should give even her pause."