(Wait, so I've come across them now?)

(Yes, you would have already come across them.)

Knox slowly turns scanning the area, and then suddenly steps back as he notices the stranger standing among the group.

"Who are you and what are your intentions?"

Knox holds his weapon and shield at the ready.

Jhazaal stays behind his boulder, a bald goblin head peeking out from behind it as he looks over the newcomer.

Paquinal holds his hands up in peace. "Stay your weapon, construct. I am not here for you." He says. Looking around, he notices the rest of the group. "Though if I may ask, what is it that you are doing here? Such a ragtag group like this, surely there must be something occurring?"

"Answer our question first and we may respond in kind depending on your response: Who are you and what are your intentions?"  Vera asks, sword still raised

"I am Paquinal Dalanthan." He bows. "I am nothing more than a simple traveler who has become lost."

A long way for a simple traveler to get lost she thinks to herself.  Lowering her sword only slightly, "We are in a similar predicament and are working on trying find a new route to our destination after an unexpected... event blocked our previous path."  Vera pauses for a moment as a flashback of the creature rising from the lake briefly fills her vision and she shivers despite herself.  "Where are you headed?  Perhaps we are all headed in the same direction." 

"Well to be honest, I don't know locations down here. The only way I can say I'm headed is the heck out of here." Paquinal says with a chuckle. "I don't suppose you'd know where that is?"

"Up," Wendigo grunts. The white furred beast-man has been eyeing this fellow suspiciously the whole time, though he's much more relaxed than he was when he first spotted the elven intruder, as he was just about ready to put an axe between the man's eyes then.

"Ah, a man of few words I see." Paquinal comments, moving closer to the white-furred beast. "Thank you for your input, but I need the exact directions to leave."

Jhazaal moves out from behind his boulder, rubbing a hand over his bald head. The goblin nods to the new person.  “I think you’ll find ‘out’ a difficult thhing to do on your own, from here.”  He says.  “That way,”  He gestures back towards the direction the group had just run from.  “is a demon that we just ran away from.”  He nods to another direction.  “That way is drow who are probably still hunting us.” He shrugs.  “We ourselves are headed around Darklake and trying to find a place where we can make some better long-term plans.”

Knox relaxes as Paquinal speaks, putting his mace away, but keeping his shield on for now.

Knox nods agreement with Jhazaal's assessment of the groups current location and options.

"If you are not hostile, you may come with us."

"My name is Knox, I am a cleric of Gond. It is a pleasure to meet you Paquinal."

"Demon you say?" Paquinal inquires. "Well my day just gets better and better. I would very much like to accompany you all if demons are loose down here."

After finally lowering her sword completely, Vera adds, "We're very much trying to not run into anymore demons but with the way our luck's been so far, I wouldn't be surprised if we encountered a few more of them or other particularly dangerous things while we're down here.  If you're looking to get out of the Underdark, you're in the same lot as most of us and are welcome to join.  I'm Vera by the way and we're currently trying to make our way to Gracklstugh; not sure if you've ever heard of it before but it'll hopefully be a safe landing spot for us." 

"Thought we were going to the grove..." Jhazaal speaks up.  "I am fine making that stop at the gray-dwarf's city before hand, but I thought our end-game was to get to the grove..."

(OOC: Sorry I actually meant the Grove.  My mistake)

Sarith speaks up suddenly (for JP's benefit, Sarith is an NPC drow scout).

"We should get moving as soon as possible.  We've been here too long for my liking, and I'd like to get to the grove quickly."

There seems something odd about his mannerisms, and his cheeks seem to have an odd tinge to them.

Jhazaal doesn't really care if the drow looks weird.  He wants to get moving as soon as possible, so doesn't really worry over-much about the drow's attitude or appearance.  "Let's go then."  He says, ready to move out.

Insight for Sarith: 20