(Wow, all need to roll over 20?! Ok, let's roll!)

Sekkar, perception: 30 (+5 from tunnels does not count, because of Expertise, right?)

Rhayna Perception: 15

Kirin Perception: 16

Pax Perception : 12

Kaylyn Perception 18

Pensive can help look also? 19 but he stays wrapped around her shoulders.

I think my math checks out and that is exactly 100 without Pensive.  I think we made it!

And that was a fun read!

(Nicely done, 100 exactly! Yes, it seems like a high target, but probably accurately estimates the difficulty of finding each other in a chaotic crowd in an unfamiliar place while disguised to look like everyone else. And besides, with the Perception skills of this group, the target is only slightly higher than if everyone had rolled a 10. Rhayna could have actually rolled with advantage, Kaylyn had Pensive, and if Pax activated truesight then everyone would stick out like an ogre in a tutu.)

It is difficult to stay together when everyone is invisible, and each of the group finds themselves alone when Pax's spell finally drops. Kaylyn and Pax scan the chaos and spot each other, and then locate Rhayna mingling with the crowd. Having taken cover behind a market stall, Kirin is only found by Sekkar sniffing him out (those smelly spell components come in handy sometimes) and uniting them back with the others. Several more soldiers and one priestess run toward the commotion that continues at the gate, with the crowd parting to let them through, giving the group a good chance to escape the now-congested market and into the more tranquil residential area.

The City of Spiders is the first real city the group have seen since Gracklstugh. In contrast to the stark blockiness and oppressive smog of the duergar realm or the alien chaos of the kuo-toa villages, the drow dwellings are beautifully carved from massive stalagmites and stalactites, connected with delicate-looking bridges of hardened spider silk and lit with coldly glowing eldritch fires. But the elegance of the intricate and elaborate architecture is like the seductive beauty of a spider's web, masking the poisonous peril that lies just out of sight, and although the group steal a moment to take in the captivating view, none miss the stark similarity between the city and the cruel drow themselves. With the soaring vault of the cavern a thousand feet overhead, there is no forgetting that this city is the heart of a different world than that of the surface, the heart of darkness.

Current location is the eastern outskirts of Narbondellyn. Where to next?

OOC: 

Pax looks around the city as they make their way through the streets. She looks at each Drow face, hoping to see compassion, love, or kindness and only seeing their stark hard looks and icy composure. She looks at each beautifully crafted building, looking to see something in the jagged points, sharp architecture, and harsh shapes. It's with a sigh when she seems to finally give up and turns to the group. In a whispered voice she says, "Let us tarry in this empty alley for a few minutes."  She attempts to find a place that they can spend a few minutes, and begins casting a ritual.  She attempts to cast Rary's Telepathic Bond on the group.  

Assuming they can without a hitch, now they can all speak together, regardless of if they get separated.  "I should have done this before. I meant to but forgot.  Ok, to the Great Stair of Tier Breche?"

Groups of drow whispering in alleys is commonplace in Menzoberranzan, and the group have no trouble taking the time to wait while the ritual is completed. Telepathic communication is now possible for the next hour.

Even after a couple of hours of being in disguise, it still seems strange to be standing in a group staring at the drow versions of one's companions. Despite the accuracy of the Seeming spell, a few of the group still have trouble looking like a real drow. Something about the eyes... It must be difficult to mimic true malice.

Malice was not one of Sekkar's characteristics, but having so many drow around kept him on high alert, and sharp suspicious looks he was giving to every dark elf looking group's way, had to be in character enough (at least he hoped so). "Yes, let's go. The faster we get there and away from the gates - the better. Should be that way." He nodded toward the right path but did not move, waiting for females to lead the way.

Rhayna has to resist the urge to start recoding what she was witnessing into her Journal. It finally dawned on her that she is actually in the fabled Drow city of Menzoberranzan. She remembers that while she has read about it, it never occurred to her that one day she would visit it. As she is following the group, from time to time, Kaylyn or Pax has to tug her so she would snap out of her admiration.

Pax ends up positioning herself just behind Rhayna as they walk through the city.....her gauntleted hand out to give Rhayna a little nudge whenever she stops and stares at something.

"Just to be clear, where are going to do this?" Kirin thinks to the ground, ready to start surveying the city.

"We're headed to the Great Stair of Tier Breche. From there, ideally into the tower to fetch this tomb. But...just between all of us, I have no intention of giving it to Vizeran. I suggest we examine it, get a sense of its worth, and then either destroy it or keep it for ourselves.  Either way, we place the chest with the device in it, get clear, and give Vizeran the message to trigger the spell.  Then we watch the chaos ensue, and wait around to help finish off any demons that survive the encounter."  She glances around at the city surrounding them, "For all its harsh beauty, this place serves only evil. Laying it to waste...will......"  Her thought trails off, unable to complete the sentence.  "Anyway, it's what we'll do."

"Will save quite a lot of creatures from slavery and death," finished Sekkar Pax's sentence. "All true. As for the book... If it's from the drow that summoned all the demons, I'd say it's place is with that machine that threw us back in time. At the bottom of the lava-pit."

Seeing the drow, truly the drow in their own homes, their own streets, made the pain of their lives more real to her.  Her journeys into the Underdark had certainly opened her mind to seeing what she had not seen before and considering the possibility of good in others that she had previously not.  But being here, in this city, and seeing these people face to face and getting a true idea of their malevolent nature brought back all of the hatred her elvish side held for the drow. 

She quickly took the lead as she walked confidently ahead of the others to lead them to the Great Stair of Tier Breche.  Pax would keep Rhayna focused, the others would follow.  She stared ahead and ignored all who looked at her as she did her best to act like the drow she had seen.  She had studied the maps enough that she felt she would have little trouble leading them to their destination.

Oh, and everyone has +11 temp hp from Kaylyn's Celestial Resilience (Kaylyn gets +17)

Quote from Paladin54 >>

Oh, and everyone has +11 temp hp from Kaylyn's Celestial Resilience (Kaylyn gets +17)

Wow, that's nice. Everyone, please remember to add this to your character sheets.

By the time Pax's ritual spell is complete, the commotion at the gate and its effect on the immediate area seems to have died down. Not wanting to remain in the vicinity pending the inevitable investigation, the group move off in the direction of Tier Breche.

Two things stand out most prominently as the city passes before the eyes of the disguised intruders. One is the sheer number of slaves - they seem to almost outnumber the drow themselves! Dwarves and orcs are the most common, followed by goblins and quaggoths. A few bugbears and myconids are seen, and even two trolls and an ogre. Elves and humans are also seen, but more often within the walls of the estates, presumably being more suited to house slaves rather than the menial labor that is more clearly visible. Every slave bears a prominent branding that marks the house that owns them.

The other glaring observation is the ubiquity of the spider motif. Every door and window, every item of clothing and piece of jewelry, the patterns on the architecture and every piece of craftwork, right down to the most mundane item, honors Lolth the Queen of Spiders with a dazzling array of variety in their creativity. Actual spiders and their webs are also commonly seen, but what would look untidy in a surface city and be promptly cleared is here proudly embellished and displayed as proof of the favor of the arachnoid goddess.

NARBONDELLYN itself offers a never-ending parade of minor drow houses each trying to outdo the other in displays of wealth, power and influence. Under the towering might of the great pillar of Narbondel, every mansion and estate makes an ostentatious show of their superiority in different ways - their slaves are seen hard at work burnishing the exterior of the houses, the maximum possible number of house guards that can be fielded are present, and loud announcements of the coming and going of any significant member of the household can be heard like a hundered discordant clarions. At one point the gates of a nearby estate open wide as a noble female drow seated high on a palanquin carried by half a dozen dwarf slaves exits into the street. Seated beside the drow on the velvet cushions is - unmistakably - an incubus. Certainly some of the group have heard of surface nobles employing fiends in their households, but to display one so unashamedly in its natural form can only be yet another demonstration of power.

Amongst all the display, none of the major houses are seen here in Narbondellyn. In fact, everyone who sees the small trio of Fey-Branche priestesses passing through, accompanied by two male attendants, gives them a wide berth. However their passage is followed by many curious eyes. The only living souls that address them are a pair of drow warriors mounted on giant lizards, patrolling street, who enthusiasticly shout the greeting: Lolth tlu malla.

After what seems like hours but probably only constitutes a quarter of one, the group enter the mercantile district of DUTHCLOIM. The buildings here are more commercial - not guarded estates but open archways leading into courtyards and foyers, beyond which the offices and working-floors of merchants and tradesfolk and craftsmen are housed. It seems however that almost every other building is an inn or a taproom or a pleasure house of some kind, offering numerous locations of different kinds where the various negotiations of commerce can be engaged in. All the Houses of the city, great and small, are represented here, but there is less of the vying for attention than was seen in Narbondellyn. Instead a much more subtle interplay is at work, greetings and conversations with hidden meaning, layered with gestures and mannerisms that convey even more meaning than the words. Thankfully most of this discourse is focused on the matters of commerce, and the group escape attention mostly due to the fact that others are occupied with their own business. House Mizzrym is prominent here, primarily in the trade of slaves, along with Del'Armgo and Vandree. The latter give the group the most obvious and most acidic looks, but nothing more.

The first real evidence of Demogorgon's arrival is seen here. Rows of buildings stop abruptly at areas of destruction as large as whole blocks, and scores of slaves can be seen gathering and transporting rubble to cast it into the Clawrift. In the largest areas a priestess oversees the recovery efforts. Kneeling before one priestess is a merchant who appears to be begging for leniency in the face of the destruction of his business, but with a flick of a slender finger, the guards drag the hapless drow away. At another area, another similar scene ends in the plaintiff promptly losing his head under the guard's scimitar.

The most direct route to the academy would have been through THE BAZAAR, but this area is cordoned off and heavily guarded. The most severe destruction is seen here, with almost the entire area flattened. Merchants and tradesfolk seeking to recover their effects are lined up awaiting their turn to be escorted by guards into the demolished zone, and those visible in the area go about their grim task with heads bowed and hoods drawn under the watchful eyes of the guards. Many dead drow bodies can be seen lying in the rubble, possibly victims of the demon lord yet to be cleared, but more likely those caught looting.

Finally the Great Stair of TIER BRECHE draws near as the journey across the width of the dreadful city draws to completion. Even from the opposite side of the Bazaar the enormous bulk of the spider-shaped cathedral of Arach-Tinilith could be seen, but here near the base of the stair it looks positively colossal, and the sounds of countless female voices chanting wafts down the stair like poison fog. To the right of the cathedral is the pyramid-shaped warrior academy, and clangs of combat training echo and mingle with the chants from the cathedral. To the left looms the great Tower of Sorcere, the group's destination, and in contrast to the other two edifices, it stands as silent and forbidding as a monstrous gravestone. The stone steps that ascend to the plateau are some three hundred feet wide and rise nearly the same distance. A pair of giant jade spiders flanks the stairway at the top, and dozens of guards cn be seen patrolling the area between and on either side.

The group are sharing their thoughts and encouragements through the telepathic link - whether to pause and assess, whether to continue to stride forward confidently - when a figure approaches. It is a well-dressed male drow in the regalia of House Baenre, the ruling and most powerful House in Menzoberranzan. He doesn't seem like a noble, but has the manner of a medium-to-high functionary. He seems to have been loitering near the base of the stair on the left side, and strolls over calmly, appraising the group as he does so. In a low voice that seems anything but offical, he casually intones the common greeting Lolth tlu malla and asks: What is your business in Tier Breche?

Pax replies in undercommon, or elven, depending on what he speaks. Keeping her voice low as well, and treating him as an ally, knowing that house Baenre and House Fey-Branche are allies.  "Lloth tlu malla. We are on a mission to research demons and summoning magics in the tower." She motions to the Tower of Sorcere. "We have information that demon influence is increasing dramatically in the Underdark, beyond just the Demogorgon's visit, and are tasked to look into it." 

The deeper they walked into the city the more "drow-like" was becoming Sekkar's look - suspicion on the border of paranoia with an equal measure of anger. He did not like anything around the group and most of all the need to be here. "Don't be too nice," reminded he to Pax while glancing around in search of another beholder's eye or any other means to examine the strangers. He counted guards, regretting that he can not tell a magic aura if there is one anywhere, and watched for other visitors - were there any at all? Were they questioned as well? By who and how did they react? Obviously, out loud he said nothing.