Radegast finished looting the body of the dead eladrin, finding a hefty purse full of strange gold coins and a driftglobe, which she offered to Bob. “What’s this?” Bob asked. “Speak a command word like so – daylight – and this becomes a floating point of light. Perfect for those in our group who do not possess darkvision,” Radegast said, as the driftglobe began to pump out magical daylight, illuminating the gloomy, increasingly smoke-filled clearing. "Or Devil's Sight," Varien said, his eyes twinkling eerily.  “Neat,” Bob said. Four of the other elven dead possessed silvered rapiers, to which the party helped themselves. “These will come in handy when the werewolves come out,” Radegast said. “So, give chase or make haste?” Varien asked. Radegast’s mood was lifting in tandem with the fading storm. “Well, they’ve made themselves scarce.” She gestured at the destruction around them. “I think I’ve made my point, and I see no reason to follow.” She stared at the eladrin. “Although…” she grappled with the corpse for a moment, propping it up into a compromising position and putting on a macabre puppet show. “Oh, look at me! I’m Doodoo Head the Stupidbutt, and I’m better than you because I can live longer than you and don’t like digging holes!” She said in a mocking singsong as she waved the dead body’s arms around dramatically. “I’m just the greatest, and you can all-” at this she pulled down the corpse’s breeches, turning him around to expose his bare backside‑“Kiss my elfy elf behind, because I’m so great!” Xylon shook his head at Radegast’s audacity. Radegast let the body drop to her feet. Bob cleared his throat. “Questions need to be answered, even if Xylon wishes to keep those questions a secret.” “What if we load one of these corpses on our new elk friend?” Alec said. “We need to take one of these extremists alive,” Bob said. “We can’t prove anything if all we have is a body or two. Radegast rolled the corpse into the nearest fire. “I don’t think we should go in after them,” she said. “I’m fine to go in,” Varien said. “But if we do, there’s no turning back – they will try to trap us and kill us.” “The people need to know that the Eldreth Veluuthra are here.” Bob said. “If we take one of these inbred scum alive, won’t Xylon just try to kill him when nobody’s looking?” Bob glared at Xylon and spoke in Elvish. “No, he won’t.” Xylon and Radegast goggled at Bob. Alec was grudgingly impressed. “Can we all speak Common, please?” Varien said. Bob brandished his healing kits. “Let’s patch up and go in there after them.” “Go in where?” Varien said. “They disappeared into the bush.” Radegast rolled her eyes. “Their hidden door sticks out like a sore thumb, Varien.” She used minor illusion to create a glowing arrow indicating the hidden door at the base of a thick tangle of thorn bushes to the northeast. The party collected themselves and assembled outside the thorny thicket. Bob turned to Xylon. “We are going to take one of them alive,” he said. “I don’t care about whatever status you’re trying to protect.” Xylon gave Bob a hard stare, and when he spoke, his words were frosted over. “You are making a mistake,” he said. “A grave mistake.” “That’s your opinion,” Bob retorted. “Don’t make choices for the rest of us.” He leaned in and switched to Elvish. “If you interfere, you’ll be the one making a mistake.” Xylon looked away. “Guys, seriously, can we all speak Common?” Varien repeated. Under his breath he said “stupid elves” in Celestial. Radegast stepped up to where the thicket bordered the clearing and pushes the thorns aside to reveal the hidden passage. “How did you even see this thing?” Varien marveled. Radegast rolled her eyes. “I saw them go into it?” Varien bent low and forced his way into the tunnel. Radegast fell in behind him, followed by Bob, Erwen, and Alec. Xylon took a last look around the devastated clearing at the elven corpses, sighed heavily, and entered the tunnel. The tunnel was a tangle of roots, brambles, thorns and vines, woven together in a thick screen that effectively concealed its existence from outside viewers. The earthen floor of the passage sloped gently downward as the party made their way into the cramped quarters. Suddenly the air was thick with arrows. “Arrow fire!” Varien shouted as his shield was struck four times in rapid succession. Two of the arrows struck him, one shearing into his collarbone, spraying blood onto his friends. “Lovely,” Radegast spat. Bob cast bless on the party members around him and angrily surged ahead. Xylon hung back in the tunnel, arms crossed, making sure he was out of the line of fire. Radegast peeked over Varien’s shield and saw three archers at the other end of the tunnel grabbing for more arrows. She pushed past the paladin, darted forward and cast thunderwave. The blast rattled the tunnel, sending leaves and clods of dirt raining down on them. One of the archers was blasted back while the other two held their ground. “Lads!” Radegast called as she disengaged and darted back up the tunnels. “We’ve got a volunteer or two here!” “Right!” Bob shouted, moving to intercept. The elven archers reloaded and fired a hail of arrows into the tunnel. Varien hurled his arm out in an effort to cover his friend, and was rewarded with an arrow shattering against his shield. However, he was forced to look on helplessly as four arrows slammed into Bob, knocking him back a step with each strike. Bob staggered, blood coursing off the arrow shafts to pool at his feet. “I’m…I’m an absolute tank!” He roared, blood streaming down his chin. “Is that all you’ve got?” As Bob sagged back, he wheezed at Varien. “I appreciate…your shield…” “Hey, it could have been worse,” Varien protested. Bob indicated the four arrows sticking out of his midsection. “COULD IT?” Varien healed Bob with some of his divine energy and then rushed ahead. To his dismay, he arrived in a t-junction of sorts, with winding root-twisted tunnels heading to the northwest and to the east. Of the elves, there was no sign. “The hell did they go?” Varien snarled, shaking his sword in anger. Erwen padded up and wildshaped into a sabre-toothed tiger. He sniffed the ground, and then pointed to the east with one paw, while arching his tail to the west to indicate that the elves had fled in both directions. “Right,” Varien said, and dashed to the east. Radegast approached the t-junction and shook her head ruefully as she took note of the obvious concealed passage heading directly south. She pushed aside the curtain of vines and saw one of the elves readying an arrow. “Found one!” she shouted and dove at the elf, trying to tackle her. The elf stood her ground, using her bow to block Radegast’s rugby tackle while pulling a dagger with her free hand. Radegast felt the sting of a blade scraping against a rib, and then the elf was gone, backpedaling south to rush out of sight. “Fine then, run and hide underground like the drow you are!” Radegast shouted. Back in the main tunnel, arrows suddenly arced out from the west and struck Erwen-Tiger’s hide twice. The wildshaped druid yowled in pain and surprise. Varien moved to the east and saw that the tunnel widened into an egg-shaped chamber of sorts, its walls made of a series of overlapping roots and lengths of timber. The floor appeared to be covered in a white carpet of moss and lichen, and glowing mushrooms were tucked into the dirt along the walls. Bob joined Varien at the mouth of the chamber and put out an arm to stop the paladin as he began to march across. “Look there,” Bob said, pointing at the floor. “It’s a tripwire.” Sure enough, a bowstring-like sinew stretched across the floor. Bob and Varien looked up to see a net woven from vines that looked ready to drop on unwary intruders. “Oh, that’s just mean,” Varien said. He backed up a bit and then launched himself across the chamber with his boots of striding and springing , surprising an elven archer who had been laying in wait for him. “Aha!” Varien shouted with glee. Alec ran down the southern tunnel to support Radegast. “Where’s the elf?” he shouted. Radegast cast minor illusion to create a line of glowing dots that revealed the escaping elf’s trail. “Careful,” she cautioned Alec. “There’s at least one side passage leading out of here. Might be an ambush.” Alec gingerly ducked past the side tunnel and continued south. “You’re coming with us, elf!” Varien shouted as he swung his sword at the exposed archer, catching him with a divine smite that knocked him nearly senseless. Varien followed through with a head cut, striking the elf with the pommel of his sword in an effort to incapacitate rather than kill. The elf obliged by falling unconscious at the paladin’s feet. “Ha ha!” Varien shouted triumphantly. In the darkness there was the sound of swords being drawn from scabbards. “Ha ha, indeed, vermin,” a haughty elven voice said. Varien turned, his Devil’s Sight revealing a phalanx of elven fighters who had been waiting in ambush. “Uh oh,” Varien said.