Arikon, Murmen, and Maglath begin traveling through the woods. The two heavily armored men crash through the branches and undergrowth, leaving a recognizable trail behind them. On the way, Maglath makes sure they avoid any natural obstacles, while Murmen and Arikon scan for threats. 

Murmen spots something that his taller companions have missed. Splattered in the foliage are some faint drops of red blood, which lead away from their destination. It's not certain how far the trail goes, but the dwarf cleric knows that they may have to delay their arrival at the sycamore tree if they wish to investigate. 

After Elsa knocks on the trap door, Jeb and Lyre can hear a gruff male voice coming from under the floor. "Aye, Mags, you know the drill. Gotta say the password."

"Elsa" nods and recites, "The dreams of man will overthrow the tyranny of elves- down with the Crown!" 

From beneath the trapdoor, the rogues can hear loud footsteps ascending a flight of stairs. What do they do? 

Maglath looks at the blood and then at Murmen.

"This could be someone escaping or it could be an injured mercenary returning," he says.

He looks in both directions along the trail of blood.

"We are not far from the ruins and the tunnel entrance. We should meet Lyre and Jeb first." 

Jeb looks at Lyre with a cat-like grin, as he silently draws his rapier. He whispers to his avian comrade with a smirk, "If they are going to be so kind as to provide the key to their guilded cage, who are we to disagree." Jeb continues to observe Elsa and the trap door.

Murmen nods, although he growls under his breath.

"Makes me a wee bit uneasy, leavin' whatever caused this behind us.  Yer right though."

What Elsa said was a goldmine for Lyre. With what he heard, he could identically mimic her words and guarantee an entry for the party, assuming they could dispatch of the guards who came up. Turning to Jeb, he shakes his head - attacking now would lose the advantage of knowledge they have at their disposal. A better plan would be to wait to see what the Elsa plans to do and attack when they had informed the rest of the party. 

If Jeb agrees, he will sneak away and meet up with the group.

Jeb seeing the negative confirmation from Lyre resheaths his rapier and follows after the avian rogue.

"Uneasy might be an understatment.", Arikon added. The walk through the woods towards their enemies' base was troubling enough without the trail of blood they had found. "I'll keep an eye on our rear, for any good it does us." The sorcerer would feel a lot better if they met up with the others again, five of them would prove harder to take down than three he hoped.

Lyre will give an exact auditory recount of their observations at the mansion, noting Elsa’s words and how he can use them to gain entry to the trapdoor. He instinctively sticks to the underbrush, noting the small Halfling’s experience with Redbrands passing through the area, and begins to load his new crossbow, flitting his head to and from the tunnel, asking if they should be going in.

Jeb nods to the others in greeting. He allows Lyre to recount the observations, marveling at the Kenku's ability to mimic what he observed. Jeb quickly interrupts Lyre as he gets to the comments from Elsa regarding Arikon. Jeb gives the kenku a stern look and subtle shake of his head and a nod to Arikon.

Jeb then pulls the gangly sorcerer aside to impart those painful words apart from the others to spare Arikon any embarrassment amongst the group.

Once both parties have updated one another, Jeb looks about at his gathered companions, lingering on John <John is present right?> and Arikon perhaps a bit longer. He says, "Shall we enter the lair of these hulligans a d send them packing?"

A short burst of laughter escapes Maglath.

"I do not understand humans mating rituals but in my village this would be amusing" he says to Arikon. "Your mate is disgusted by you."

He pats Arikon on the back. "I understand why you were concerned now."

Maglath then stoops and looks down the tunnel.

"I will not be able to move freely once in the tunnel nor will I be able to be quiet while bending over to get through," he says. "But it will still be the easier way inside."

He gestures at Lyre.

"Can you scout ahead?"

Lyre makes a rather horrid but muted screeching noise that resembles some kind of parrot or crow that could be interpreted as laughter from Maglath’s words. He will turn his head towards Jeb, and repeat; “Scout ahead?”

Jeb looks about at the gathered companions. He asks, "So are we in agreement, Lyre and I shall move ahead of the main group to stealthily scout out potential enemies, while the main group follows us at a distance to not compromise us with their less than stealthy maneuverings? Should we run into any issues that result in combat you lot will be moments behind us. Yes?"

Maglath readies his shield and warhammer and nods to Lyre and Jeb.

"Yes. We will follow after a few moments," he says. "If you get into trouble yell loudly."

He places a hand on Lyre's shoulder.

"Be careful."

Lyre leads, crossbow in arms, adhering to the shadows to compliment his dark features.

Stealth: 17

Perception: 9

Jeb draws his rapier, it's familiar weight a comfort as he descends into the tunnel behind Lyre.

Stealth: 18, Perception: 13

"That little...", Arikon grunted as he heard Elsa's words through Lyre. "Well, it looks like I'll have to cancle my date...", he couldn't help but to laugh at his own naivity, "What a pitty!" There was no question that this woman had played him, but he was intent to make sure that she wouldn't enjoy this game any longer. "Let's get this done, friend!", he said to his companions. "I need to regain some of my dignity.", he chuckled.

Weapons drawn, the party enters the dirt tunnel, some needing to duck their heads due to the low ceiling. Jeb and Lyre scout ahead as Murmen, Arikon, and Maglath follow. 

The tunnel slopes downward and continues for quite some distance. After seventy feet of traveling, the scouts catch of glimpse of lantern-light; they must be nearing the end. They feel a cold draft blow past them as they approach the light. However, Lyre fails to spot a discarded beer bottle on the floor- the glass crunches under his feet.  

A slight gasp can be heard at the end of the tunnel. There's a creak of a chair and some footsteps as a figure begins approaching the party's position. The figure's shadowy silhouette reveals it to be holding a hand crossbow in one hand, a short-sword in the other. A shrill female voice can be heard. 

"Serphin? Adem? Is that you? This isn't funny, you know. Mags making me watch over the beast was bad enough; your antics really aren't helping."  

There's not much time to react before the figure comes within view. What does the party do? 

Lyre isn’t quite sure what he stepped on, but he hates the smell of it. It reminds him of that drink Maglath ordered for him. He jerks his head towards Jeb and back towards the top of the hill before shrugging and pointing at his bow, as if asking whether Jeb should return and alert the others or if they should kill the sentry outright. Either way, he begins to puff out his throat and begin to construe a message from the speech he had observed. In the words of Glasstaff, he will boom from his vantage point; “It is I, Glasstaff! We could use your help - come quickly!” In attempt to draw her and anyone else out of the place she is hiding in. 

Murmen tries not to clatter too much, and readies his weapon.