It seems he would rather die than talk, sighs Chen. We might need to consider other ways of learning what we need to know. He thinks for a moment and then asks Toc: How far to the rendezvous location? Is there any value in our capturing the others and taking their place in disguise?

Jahren says "well I do not possess the skills of Fianna, but maybe I'll get lucky."

Jahren reaches for the bandore at his side and gently plays with the string a bit, coaxing out a bit of Fey magic once again.  He kneels in front of their drow prisoner, mutters a few words in Sylvan and then starts saying "my friend, I'm so sorry that they have bound you like this."  "We will fix this mistake right away."  (That is if the magic takes hold, of course.)

Charm Monster  DC18 WIS  Disadvantage granted by the instrument should cancel out his drow Advantage.

The drow grows still as you cast your spell. It seems to have stopped thrashing.

"Free my friend at once!"  Jahren suddenly starts barking at the party in front of his new 'friend'.  "Friend, I'm sorry for this mistake.  I didn't expect to see you out here.  What are you doing out here way up in a tree?"

Persuasion to get him to start spilling the beans: 32

Mirica smirked (the drow could not see it) and played along - un-gagging the prisoner and removing the manacles. The drow would not get very far from their group ready and watching and Toc could cover the "silent conversation" part with his "dome of silence".

At Mirica's nudge, Toc casts his spell, sealing the area in silence.  The Drow watches with a frown.  When the gag is removed and he's stood up, his eyes are darting about the party calculatingly.  With the manacles removed, he rubs his wrists.  He glances about.  He could be judging his ability to flee, but they're slim to none with you all surrounding him. He looks to Jahren as he persuades him to speak.  The Drow, "Yes....friend....indeed. I do not...recall your face, nor those of your allies here. I only recall the ugly visage of that elf wizard there, and her...that Fey slave half-elf. I recall them both. I remember him chopping his ways through our forces at the battle of grey root, while her magic ravaged our wizard cadre."  Toc frowns and looks back at the party, "I don't remember him, but I remember the battle of Grey root. It was a decisive victory over a wing of Netheril forces, including many drow."   The Drow spits on the ground, "You may have won the day...but the dead faces of your elven friends were many...and I revel in the memory. As I revel in the memory of Elminster bringing the city down and wiping out your precious Myth Drannor"   Toc clenches his jaw, his hand resting on his blades...but says nothing. Though it seems to take much of his effort.

The Drow turns to Jahren, "We are here on order from Viridianantallax. We are to watch for some Hillsfarian force, draw them in, and wipe them out. Simple enough. Surely you care nothing for some group of murderous human thugs that look down on all others. They wander around the forest as if they own it, like maggots on the body of a deer, thinking they own it, when the wolves that slew it sit nearby."

"Indeed I don't, which is why we are friends.  I have forced these few here to bend to my will, despite their initial struggle."

(more to come)

Jahren starts going through as many questions as he can without upsetting this dark elf, starting with details on the ambush and how many they have.  Spellcasters?  Where is Verdant Cloud?  Why do they serve Viridianantallax?  What about the other two?  Who is in charge of their forces?  Do they get their orders directly from the dragon?  Do they know the man with displacer beast pets? etc. etc.

(DM do you want to handle these 1 at a time or fast track this somehow until the magic and Persusasion just isn't enough for our new 'friend'?  Jahren will take the angle that he too, as a half-elf, hates the humans and has amassed his own help, which includes the party, and needs to know who's in charge of what here in Cormanthor.)

12

Jahren, as you continue with your questioning, you are trying to balance the psyche of this creature with his facial expression and words, but it's soon abundantly clear that he's being evasive with his answers. He's attempting to answer you, while also misleading you.  You're not sure he's actually under the influence of your spell.  It's tough to know.

"There are several dozen drow scattered about the boundaries of the elven court ruins watching for the approach of the squad." (partial truth) "We don't know the whereabouts of Verdant Cloud...but our commander has agreed to serve Viridianantallax in this matter because we take any chance to hurt the humans of Hillsfar." (partial truth). "My commanders name is Ryld Torar." (true) "Yes, the dragon is...interested in this squad for some reason, we take our orders from him." (partial truth).  "Displacer beast? No, we're not aware of any such man." (true)  

"If I'm not back at my post soon, I will be missed....if you care nothing for these humans, best let us eliminate them for you."   (true)

Mirica stiffed understandable muttering: "A drow caring about the woods, now I saw everything," and just quietly waited for Jahren to finish investigation. So far drow managed to improve her opinion of the regiment - if the dragon wanted them gone, they might not be a pointless show-offs after all. 

Loane watches the conversation silently, arms crossed and eyes narrowed on the drow. Any comment is bitten back, as to not interrupt the questioning. She looks up at the trees at one point out of habit, checking to see if the drow was already being missed.

Perception if needed:21

   “Several dozen, huh?” Fianna asks, skeptical. 
   “Check it out,” She tells FinFin.  “Carefully!”

   The pseudo dragon crawls out from the back of her neck and takes to the air. The familiar sticks close to the trees and branches trying to blend in and be unseen as it flies into the forest for a reconnaissance mission to count Drow and keep an eye out for other potential threats.

FinFin Stealth: 23  + 10 for whatever part of an hour the Without a Trace is still good for.

FinFin, practically invisible flaps up into the tree tops. Flying about, the small dragon tries to spot the Drow. They're will hidden. 

19

She notices seven of them in the trees nearby and heads further into the ruins. Even up here, the dark forest shows its soul, spiny vines wrap around trees limbs high above and large webs with monstrous spiders crouching in them are strung here and there. FinFin makes its way deeper into the ruins. At some point, FinFin sees an oddly regular line of detritus on the forest floor, in an almost straight line. It is made up of rocks, arrows, and bolts, piled randomly.  Moving past, FinFin gets into the ruins proper. The area is not small, once having been a small city. The signs of old buildings are many, treetop buildings, as well as stone works down below. Old crushed fountains, signs of old pathways between the trees, bridges over water...though the water has grown dark purple, almost black as it trickles down streams and creeks.  

At one point FinFin finds a large lagoon (of dark purple water). It is around the lagoon that a larger force exits. Perhaps fifty orcs are crouched around in the ruins, half hiding. A handful of drow are around, though they keep separate from the orcs, though the orc captain does seem to be sitting next to one of the drow.  FinFin notices three gargoyles perched and moving about on a nearby building as well as a handful of ettercaps all crouched and seemingly guarded in a ruined building. 

The way they are laid out around the space, it looks like they are in a position to ambush groups moving into the ruins. 

Presumably several other small groups of Drow are likely out beyond the perimeter of the ruins in other directions watching as well. 

(This is probably a big waste of a spell slot, but is potentially also the easiest way to handle this if it works...)

Knowing they are risking him being noticed away from his post and that he will alert his allies to this incident immediately, Jahren casts Mass Suggestion (7th level, DC18 WIS) on the drow and then says "since we are allies, you must tell me all of that which you have been trying to hide from me previously here today."  "You will then go back to your perch and tell no one of this meeting, or our presence here."

(So my understanding is that the condition of this spell is not actually 'charmed' and thus my bardic instrument does not grant Advantage.  If that's the case, his potential resistance to charm also does not apply (unless he's immune as per the spell description).  Either way I think it would be a straight roll off, but could be wrong.)

(OOC: I agree, elves don't get advantage to saves against Mass Suggestion, and your instrument doesn't help. FYI, when it's a spell without a clear indication of success, I generally roll my NPC saving throws outside of the this forum.) 

The Drow narrows his eyes and looks at Jahren.  "Very well.  In addition to drow, we have nearly 50 orc, a handful of ettercaps, a few gargoyles....and Viridianantallax himself is here. The squad has proven surprisingly resilient, so Viridianantallax insisted on an overwhelming force to eliminate them. We don't know why Viridianantallax is so interested in destroying this squad though. It goes beyond just hurting Hillsfar. Our commander follows him on orders from our leaders, but I do not know why they have ordered us to assist a dragon." 

He turns to go and head back to his position.

Meanwhile, Toc turns to you Chen, "Sorry, you had questions.  I'm not sure which fountain they wanted us to meet at when they said fountain of tears. I presume we'd look around and try to make a determination. There could be a few...but no clear answer enters my mind. Either way, we're about a 20 minute walk from the center of the old elven court here."

Jahren does his absolute best to judge if this guy is faking falling under control of the spell or not, as they probably can't afford to let him go sound the alarm if they aren't totally sure he has to follow Jahren's orders to stay silent about this for 10 days.

Insight: 13

(Makes sense DM, glad we are on the same page as this stuff has the potential to be at least a bit confusing / rules lawyer-y.  I imagine the same might be true for him trying to deceive Jahren if he did make his save.)

Jahren feels pretty confident that the Drow is not faking it, and is going to follow the rules.

Before the elf gets too far Jahren says to the group "ah, I'm pretty sure that worked, but there's always a chance that he's just really selling it."   "Do you prefer to, ah...?"  He runs a single finger across his own throat.

"Would not help much," shook her head Mirica. "There will be alarm if he does not return - and alarm if he returns and reports. Not to mention, he said enough to warrant his own death if other drow will find out. I say leave him be."

"But I am positively intrigued by that regiment now. They managed to be a pain in the ... tail for a dragon. Not bad. I am beginning to believe the stories about them and the demons."

“We should warn their main force as soon as possible, but let us also slip away from here...”