Silthras' gaze remains on Kaz for a moment, still waiting for his answer, but then turns to the newcomer. He smiles easily, and holds out his hand in welcome. "All help is most welcome."

Despite his words, Loghain might detect an a slight hesitation in Silthras' manner. "Not many from your land make it this far east." He says, still smiling. "Must be quite a story to that."

[ I haven't gotten a link to the DndBeyond campaign yet. But it's 16. I'm not sure how a tie works in this case? ] 

Stepping forward, he takes the invitation to shake the other man's hand. "Not many from my land still have the will to fight." He takes a step back, a bit of a disdainful look on his face. "Many accept their fate as cattle." He concludes with an apathetic shrug. "Quite the story indeed." Loghain says in agreement, though he doesn't seem to be interested in elaborating at this moment. 

"I don't know when Vanial will come back, he comes and goes sometimes. You don't really give orders to an angel, yes?" Kaz says with a shrug, answering Silthras first question. To answer his second, the man grins and - after stepping on his tiptoes a bit - puts his arm around Loghain's shoulders. "As for this man, he has been tested just about every way you can imagine."

"I'd trust him with my own daughter if I had one."

"With the way things are going, you'll have plenty more stories to tell after sticking with us." Kal remarks. He was cautiously optimistic about the prospect of an extra pair of hands on this. If the man turned out to be untrustworthy, he was more than certain the others in the group would be quick to catch onto it. "I'm Kal, glad to have your help." 

Silthras seems satisfied, "Not many make it out of that cursed place to tell the tale," he says. "So...tell us what you know of this Tel'n'avae. Any ideas on how to find, fight and end them?"

"First you must find a woman capable of tolerating you, friend." Loghain says with deadpan delivery, pulling away a bit to detach himself from the man. His attention returns to Silthras, and his head tilts. "You do not find, fight, or end Tel'n'avae. You outwit, outmaneuver, and then put an end to whatever plot they have concocted." After briefly glancing at Kaz, he goes on. "We have upended their plans before, and we will do it again here in this city."

Usul, a young gnome with unkempt hair and clothing, though with some clearly well made artifacts lining his gear, seemingly clashing with whatever he might call his 'style', looks to the newcomer, back to Kaz, back to the newcomer, back to Kaz who says his part of trusting Loghain, back to Loghain and then takes a step forward reaching a hand up to shake saying, "Name's Usul!" As he does so a small red-haired weasel pokes its nose out from Usul's vest, dashes up the gnome's arm and sniffs at the newcomers hand. As the weasel sniffs at it, and is seemingly satisfied before going back to Usul's shoulder, Usul adds, "That's Dib!"

Silthras frowns, "And killing him, her, or it is not on the agenda, because...?" He shakes his head and glances at Kaz, "Assume we know nothing of this being -- we have had Kaz as a teacher after all -- and feel free to educate us."

"It's not for lack of trying," Kaz cuts in. "Even your Watchers and Starlight Court at the height of their power could not permanently deal with Tel'n'avae." He crosses his arm, a slight defensive tone creeping into his voice now. "From what Vanial tells us, the Living Lie was killed on Ravere once before. It came with a steep price, and turned out to only be temporary measure, returning it to whatever twisted plane it came from. Clearly, it was not a permanent solution."

"Trying to kill it is not on the agenda, because we know how to pick battles we can win. But if you happen to stumble upon some secret to give you the upperhand in such a fight...By all means."

Silthras nods and lets his breath out slowly, "So...an actual fiend 'fiend'. I see." He pauses, eyes closed, rubbing his temples. His mind works slowly but eventually he turns to Loghain, head also tilted to one side, "Did it have anything to do with what happened in Ghorzadia?"

"I have my suspicions." The reply comes quickly, and his expression turns sour. "It would not surprise me to find something darker and more sinister than that false Duke stirring in my homeland." His eyes close for a moment as it almost seems like he's doing some kind of breathing exercise. When they reopen, he looks somewhat calmer. "We should focus on the task at hand for now though. Time is of the essence when dealing with Tel'n'avae. If it suspects you are getting close to its plans, they tend to accelerate."

Silthras nods again, "Agreed. I believe Kaz was going to seek news of Clayus and if that fails, we have an avenue that we can pursue in the morning."

"Which leaves us with the tunnels. They are a confirmed connection to some of those he...is it a he?" Silthras pauses, his gaze shifting between Kaz and Loghain, before continuing, "Whatever...We know where its servants fled. We know there is corruption at the temple, and we suspect that the servants will be at the hub of the tunnels, or perhaps in a spoke -- the tunnels seem to form a wheel -- a spoke that leads near the temples, if such exists."

He turns to his companions, "That's it, I think?" His gaze catches Usul and he looks up again quickly, "One more thing: One of them is...a friend of Usul's."

Turning back to the gnome he asks, "Can you describe them for us?"

Usul thinks for a moment and says, "He's not a really bad kid... and after seeing those all from the house last night, it seems they're recruiting from the streets... those who have little to lose." He then best describes the boy he's looking for to the others.

For Silthras question, Kaz gives a mighty shrug. "It's a shapeshifting fiend from another plane, we haven't really looked underneath its skirt so to speak. Refer to it as you like." Usul would describe to the others a halfling boy a few years younger - and a few inches shorter he adds - than him. The boy's name is Anner, he's got a chipped front tooth, sandy blonde hair, and green eyes.

Her eyes linger on the newcomer's weapon for a moment, curious about the light weapon's design. Eventually though, she finds a null in the conversation to introduce herself. "I'm Sylnora. Most seem to just call me Syl though. Don't be alarmed if you hear my voice in your head. It's a thing I do."

Silthras glances around at his companions, "Time to leave?"

"Velyra" She says quickly to the newcomer. Privately, she was already fond of him for the insult he had thrown at Kaz, but she would never openly admit it. She nods with Silthras suggestion, though before they leave, she turns to Kaz. "So what was so special about this place?" She asks, gesturing around the room. "Doesn't seem particularly safe to me."

Kaz looks around the wooden walls of the room, and smiles. "A very clever friend of ours spent a year warding this room and a few other locations against divination spells. Ensures nothing spies on us while we speak of important things."

Silthras pulls out his hastily drawn map, "I put the tunnel in the wrong place 'cos I realized too late that I would run out of paper -- damned thing's big -- but the rest is right I think. We should head to the hub, then take what I'd expect to be the second to the left. Assuming they are evenly spaced."

Kaz leans over the map, nodding with an impressed look on his face. "You would have liked Thulrigg. One of the men we sent to Feycrest. Had a similar penchant for map making, you've probably seen his work already." After saying his goodbyes to Loghain, he leads you all out of the warehouse building, parting ways with you shortly after.

With Usul at the helm for the rest of you, your party quickly makes your way through the city, reaching the abandoned home you had chased the thieves to the previous night in about thirty minutes. You wait an additional fifteen minutes for the nearby road to clear out of any curious eyes, then re-enter the building. Everything is as you left it, even the bed hiding the trap door is still moved out of the way.

Once more, you descend the ladder into darkness one at a time. You make your way down the small tunnel...

Around the time you would expect to be breaking out into the larger tunnel system however, you are shocked to find a dead end. Where there was once an entryway, there is now a wall of smooth stone blocking your path.