(There are about 150 pixies and sprites, you estimate.)

The pixie pulls herself together and obediently casts 'Sleep.'  21 pixies drop to the ground and begin snoring. "I don't know if they'll wake up when the spell ends," she says.  "We're all so tired...but there won't be any hag to restore the spell in the morning, so they should be okay tomorrow, at least."  She manages to wrestle another of her friends to you for restoration.

Raven sets out in pursuit of whatever gnome urchin Mindartis has failed to grab (or has released) along with anyone who accompanies her. 

The east passage opens up into another main street lined with ruins.  Most of the buildings are collapsed, but you can see one large manor that looks in relative good repair.  Two giant hyenas are chained at the entrance, napping, and giving off an aura of boredom even in sleep. Over the rest of the square you see signs of sleeping places scooped out of the dirt on the floor...no blankets or cushions, but an occasional heap of rags or mounded dirt that looks like it was used as a pillow.

The urchins run on, through a long, twisting tunnel, sometimes opening up into great caves full of stactites and stalagmites, sometimes so narrow the urchins have to wriggle through and you have to use your ring.

After a few hours, you emerge into what looks like an abandoned basement, to see the gnomes making their way out through a coal grate.  Following them, you find yourself in an alley on the surface, back in Yonpinagel.  The urchins run through the city to the warehouses then beyond them to a small grove of saplings that has been replanted since the great fire.  Half concealed among the your trees is a wagon.  The urchins throw their bundles onto the wagon and race back toward the city. It seems to be about 3 in the afternoon...

Lying on the seat of the wagon gazing up at the sky is a young elf.  He has early spring flowers braided into his long, pale hair, and wears an outfit that not only looks like it was once extremely expensive, but remarkably foppish, with fancy gold embroidery everywhere, and a hate full of exotic plumes resting beside him.  Patches have been sewn all over the clothes, in blindingly bright colors and disturbingly clashing patterns, and in places that make it seem likely they were added purely for decoration, rather than to cover worn spots. He is humming to himself and twiddling a long piece of grass in his fingers, paying no attention to the gnome deliveries.

(Off to work, now...you guys can figure out who is where and whether anyone has caught up to Raven. ^^)

Dex Checks: 9 10 6

The gnomes give Mindartis the run around, and he winds up tripping over his own feet as a result.

Elwin had hesitated at first--chasing the kids when they didn't have a finished product was risky. But Raven was right... the people who were having the wood delivered to them were likely their best bet in working their way up the chain. He slung his shield onto his back and then broke into a run to follow her as she chased after the gnome children.

“We need to tell the druids. Do you think you have enough energy to talk to some people for us?” Quentin asks the pixie 

Once the second pixie is restored and starts helping, Del follows where Raven followed the gnomekin. I am sure Elwin made sure we could find the trail. Del holds back as Raven sneaks up, getting Ziia out and ready for action

Mindartis stays below, keeping an eye on the pixies and remainder of the gnomes down here. "So they reset the spell in the mornings then?" he asks.

The second freed pixie also casts sleep...13 more pixie flutter to the ground, dozing.

Del and Mindartis catch up to Raven eventually, and they stand behind the warehouses together, scoping out the strange elf and his wagon. The bed of the wagon is covered with small bundles, though not nearly full.

---------

Pixie 1 looks at Quentin with a bewildered expression.  "What druids? Where?  Are they down here somewhere, too?  My family and I come from Pearlblossom, in the Fey wilderness. A strange, tall creature came to our village and invited us to go with him. He said he knew a wonderful new place to live where there were all the sweets any pixie could want. A lot of our people decided to go. I think they must have been enchanted somehow. And others went with them just because their friends and families were going, or because he offered sweets. Those of us who stayed behind were trying to decide what to do about it when the grey elf came with more of the tall things. The elf had nets and traps, and could see us even when we turned invisible, and the tall things shot globs of spun sugar at us, and we stuck in it like spiderwebs.  They put us in sacks, then, and when they opened the sacks, we were here. The hags cast spells that made us not be able to stop working. I don't even know how to get out of here...though we can probably find the way, when everybody is better."

"That's right," says Pixie 2 to Mindartis. "Every morning i would wake up feeling like maybe I might sneak away today and get help, but then the hags would start their ritual and I didn't want to do anything but rip up the poor tree roots." He looks teary-eyed. "They said it was the last bits of the Great Pixie Tree we were cutting up.  Is that true?  Anyway, it used to be worse. When there were three hags, the spell lasted a whole week at a time, but they had a fight and one left a few months ago, I think--it's hard to count days or tell time down here--and after that they had to do it every day."

Mindartis curls up his nose at the information, "I promise you I'll get you back home. And then I'm going to hunt down ever last hag on this and every god forsaken plan and rip them to shreds. See if they can keep up with their plan if their numbers keep dwindling."

Del thought he was going to be the last one, so he urges Q & M C'mon Lords, we should stick together and our siblings have run off

Del  Messages Raven and whoever from his spot I can Entangle  the elf and horses* when you signal

(( * horses? ponies? badgers? whatever is at the front of the cart ))

Raven hesitates.  "If he is charmed, then I do not wish to kill an innocent, but, if he is working willingly, then I will have no issues."  She glances to the others.  "Anyone able to tell if he is under a spell or not?"

Del's suggestion seems to go in one ear and out the other, though Mindartis does say, "We have no idea if other people are going to arrive. Some needs to stay behind to hold guard. Someone should probably spend the night here as well. I'll do both."

Quote from skuk >>

Del thought he was going to be the last one, so he urges Q & M C'mon Lords, we should stick together and our siblings have run off

Del  Messages Raven and whoever from his spot I can Entangle  the elf and horses* when you signal

(( * horses? ponies? badgers? whatever is at the front of the cart ))

 (There is nothing hitched to the cart at the moment, and no animals in immediate view. There is an empty harness, though.)

As he raced out Del responded to M Understood, be well my Lord

back in the present Del  Answers R (and informs E and maybe if Q is here too?) I don't think so; Lord Mindartis insisted on watching over the small ones. Somehow I suspect disguise - who would dress like that - but we could try to subdue rather than destroy perhaps

Del will wait for Raven to lead since she gets an advantage that way though

Quentin tell the pixie, "Up top near the top of the trees is all kind of druids working on fixing it. But they won't talk to us or believe us when we said someone was taking wood from it. But they'll believe you." 

(If Quentin is still underground talking to the pixie, I don't think he can hear Raven, who is now above ground and a mile or so away...)

(Sorry. Edited. I get confused when people start moving all over the place. Regardless....if people know the identify spell they should know I can use it on people too to identify if they’re influenced my magic, a detect magic will also reveal that. Regardless they should know we can identify if people are under the influence of magic instead of assuming and attacking.)

"I guess...I can try to find the way," the pixie says, looking scared.

"I'll go with you," says the other pixie, taking her hand. "Two heads are better than one, and there's not much else we can do to help the others down here."

After more discussion, they decide to go the way you came from, since you saw no threats that way, and they have no idea what lies in the other direction.

"Do you wish me to accompany you?" Mindartis asks the pixies.

"It would probably be better if you stayed to protect the others, " one pixie says. "What if some more gnolls or hags show up?"

Mindartis smiles and cracks his knuckles, "Oh, I know what'll happen if more show up, don't you worry."