Makara IC

The group elects to go the a bakery.
This particular one is run by a portly drow man.
There are various mushroom breads of different darkness and shape. From nearly pitch black to light gray, round, long, flat, to standard loaf shape. Some have nuts in them, a few are powdered with mushroom meal like surface bread is sometimes powdered with flour. There are also smaller baguettes and rolls and bagels and something like a twisted bagel and a loaf of cheese bread.
For sweeter fare there are muffins, cheese danishes, something like a flat glazed donut, and something remarkably like a schnecken.

Parveth notices one of the herbalists she met yesterday as they come inside. They are of course buying an herb bread.

Before leaving the bedroom, Parveth re-braids her hair, restoring it to its usual bun and tail.

---

Parveth gives the apothecary a small smile and an acknowledging nod as they notice each other, but doesn't move to initiate with them. This the most friendly anyone in the party has seen her.

Steam gets some kind of sweet roll. Since a single sweet roll does not a good breakfast make, she gets a mound of them.
Parveth gets a baguette and asks for a small amount of the same herbal loaf the apothecary had gotten.

Charges for Stuff
Ant Amulet hasn't been used recently so should be good.

Bone Eater's Bracelet gains 1 Charge.

Red Fox Riding Hood did not gain a charge.

Along with Ketha's cheese bread and Adelinde's muffin, the food total comes to.... still free.

After you finish your meal, you're brought back to the council building and into the same meeting room you were in before. Zarethria is already there, seated. She gets up to greet you and motions for you all to sit down. When you have she says, "I hope you have all enjoyed yourselves. I believe I will get right to the point. The Council would appreciate your assistance in moving the people of our city to the surface and into the ruins of Kelfas as well as escorting me to talk to the people in charge of things up there. You see, this area has always been too small for two cities to truly coexist peacefully down here and it is only a matter of time before another war breaks out which will inevitably gain us nothing much. So, are you willing to help us?"

"You and yours have treated us very well councilor, I'd personally love nothing more than to repay that in kind. But in that same spirit, if I may speak freely I have to ask; are you sure? Kelfas is a monster infested ruin currently run by an "honorable general" and his bandits who have shown no qualms about enslaving others towards his "noble cause". I have little reason to doubt he'd accept your people, but I have less reason to doubt it wouldn't be in the form of pressganging you and yours into service with his pet mage and her horde of fire elementals." She hesitates for a moment as she considers what to say next. "If you have some way to ensure you and yours can recieve a fair negotiation inspite of that I'd do my best to help but at present I worry we'd be leading you straight into a new war or a cage"

"From what you told me, this man the Boar wants to rebuild the city and has a drow, almost certainly one of ours if my information is correct, as an advisor and leader in his organization. I would imagine that he would wish to ally with us and accomplish his goal, since you said slavery what not what he claimed his end goal to be, rather than fight and surely lose the ability to achieve that goal." Zarethria replies.

"Because it already has structures and valuable resources including people who once we are allied with them will object to those who have a historical hatred of us drow attacking us. They can also teach us many things about the surface it would take us a long time to learn on our own and likely at the cost of lives. And most importantly it means we would not once again be nearby another city which may decide to make war on us, which would invalidate us leaving this situation." Zarethria replies.

Parveth reflects on what she knows of The Boar and how she expects him to approach the drow’s request to move to the surface.

---

Insight: 22 = (16) +6
Intelligence: 22 = (20) +2

---

Having stewed while Adelinde and Zarethria talked, she eventually chimes in. “The reclamation of Kelfas is much a war of its own. We have walls, yes, but many things yet lurk within them. Kelfas is vast, and a century of struggle has cut but a foothold into it. The Boar would greatly appreciate your alliance and aid; he practically cannot refuse it, except if you insisted on remaining entirely separate, which you have thus far seemed averse to.”
She pauses for a moment, staring intently at Zarethria for the gravity of the situation. ”If you believe joining our war is the proper path for your citizenry...and their descendants...then we will bring you to it.”

Steam says nothing, knowing this is too important a decision for her to be involved in. She pays attention, but doesn’t contribute.

"Well, thank you for thinking so much of our well-being." Zarethria replies with a bright smile. "What you have just mentioned has been thoroughly discussed and we believe this is the best path. Since you agree, before you take me to meet with the Boar, we must meet with the leader of Malnibonae. I would ask you to accompany me in this as it will make this whole thing go a lot smoother. By which I mean it will greatly reduce the risk of a war starting over our organizing to leave."

Parveth’s eyebrow shoots up, surprised and confused why this would be a necessary course of action. “You wish to inform the other city, whom you fear war from, that you will be packing up and leaving? That they will not seize an opportunity to strike when you are unexpecting and unfortified? Forgive me, I am sure these are things your council has already discussed and involve politics I am not privy to, but this seems moderately ill-advised and dangerous for me and mine.”

Zarethria laughs a little bit and replies, "That is a reasonable question. We won't leave our flank unprotected, though you are certainly right that we would be more vulnerable as we moved. However if we just began trying to move without saying anything they would assume we were preparing for an attack. Also, the reason for attacking us is a desire for the space we occupy. They have little reason to risk lives to take territory we are going to be giving them freely. The issue is convincing them that our intentions are what they are. This is where you outsiders come in. They saw you arrive and know you have not been here long enough to have great reason to work against their interests."

"I suppose." Parveth thinks for several moments more, clearly trying to figure something out, before casting eyes at the rest of the group to gauge their standing on the situation. When everyone appears vaguely anxious but not specifically against it, she says, "It is a reasonable course of action, and one we will assist you in. Has a time table already been established, regarding the meeting? Is there anything we need to be made aware of about Malnibonae?"

"We would be heading out immediately if you all find that acceptable." Zarethria replies while appearing to think a moment on the later question before saying, "As you know, they practice slavery there. You will be perfectly safe as long as you are with me or any of my guards, but you should most certainly not wander off. If anything does occur, do your utmost to avoid harming any drow or spiders. We will be heading to the Grand Temple of Lolth there."

Parveth sort of does a quick patdown of herself, making sure her various tools are where she expects them to be, before nodding her assent.
Steam gives a thumbs up and a small smile. She assumes everything is fine and this will work out definitely okay.

Noting that everyone is ready, Zarethria tells a servant to go fetch her carriage. As you go outside and wait you maybe don't think much of that. Maybe you think that you haven't really seen much in the way of carriages and certainly nothing in the way of horses.

A few minutes later what looks like a rather large spider scuttles over accompanied by two smaller (but still giant) spiders. It only takes a moment to realize that this isn't a normal spider in any sense at all. Examining it just for a few moments reveals the fact that its more like the animated exoskeleton of a spider than anything alive. This is further backed up by the fact that it has doors and windows in it and the fact that one of the guards opens one of the doors and reveals an interior with seats. Zarethria climbs in and takes a seat and straps a strap around her body and beckons the rest of you inside.
Once she is settled, she asks, "Would you prefer to take the low road and see things up close or the high road and get a better sense for the city as a whole?"

Steam also buckles in.

Parveth casts another appraising look over the rest of the group, before stating, “Low path, I suppose.” She doesn’t seem particularly excited by either option, but that’s not especially out of the norm.

After everyone has gotten into the necromantic spider carriage, have strapped in, and there seem to be no objections, Zarethria commands the vehicle to travel to the Grand Temple of Lolth while she places a hand on it you get the feeling is used to magically convey some amount of information about how it should travel.
The moment starts off nice and smooth and the guards mounted on their riding spiders flank you, though not so close as to obstruct your view.

In not much time you're exiting the city through the tunnel you came in through. And then back into the area you first arrived in and over to the portcullis you saw. Which is being raised as you approach and the bridge is lowered to allow you to cross. There's a good stretch of nothing much to look at in the no man's land between the cities.

Then you're very suddenly in a city. The architectural style is pretty similar to Lo'Toth though there are some differences. At first you pass along at the street level and you can see people going about their business, mostly drow or what you assume are their slaves which as you go seem to be mostly dueregar, deep gnomes, halflings, some weird not quite human looking humanoids, and things that look like more or less humanoid mushroom people.
Unlike Lo'Toth the entire city seems to be inside of this singular giant cavern. The city is dimly lit by glowing mosses and the like or by magical flames that are mostly blue, green, or purple.
When you encounter significant traffic on the road, the spider carriage leaps up onto a nearby roof. There you find the roofs of the city are mostly all lined with bridges of webbing that your vehicle and various other spiders cross. As you get farther into the city there are webs that extend up into the air, which at some point cause you to look up and see there is a massive arrangement of webs hanging in the air and many spiders traveling to and fro up there. You even think you spot a few small buildings being held up in the air by the webs.
It doesn't take terribly long for you to understand that Malnibonae is a much bigger city than Lo'Toth is.
Eventually you can see what must be the Grand Temple of Lolth looming up ahead in the distance. It's truly massive, almost going all the way up the ceiling of the cavern and as you get closer you can see many webs extending from it to the great network of webs above the city.
As you get closer to the Grand Temple the buildings seem to be grander and the people dressed nicer. You get the impression that wealth and status extend outward from the temple, not that this is shocking as you knew this was a theocracy going in.

After a long enough time that you're really itching to get up and stretch your legs you arrive at the Grand Temple of Lolth. At the bottom floor there is a fairly large and quite wide staircase heading up to the massive main doorway. You see several what must be acolytes of Lolth dressed in simpler (though nicely made) black robes with gold trimmings. At your arrival, one rushes off into the temple. One of the guards dismounts from their spider and opens the spider carriage door for the group and gives Zarethria a hand as she exits and then offers their hand for each of the rest of you.

Spoiler:

As the carriage approaches the Grand Temple, Ketha makes sure to ask Zarethria "Is there anything we should know? Things we should or shouldn't do?"

"As I mentioned before, you shouldn't wander off. I would also recommend not attempting to enter the temple unless invited or making any negative remarks about Lolth, slavery, or other cultural issues without care. If you were part of Underdark society there would be more nuance I could offer, but since you aren't you get something of a pass for many things. Is there something in particular you are concerned about?" Zarethria replies.

Parveth makes a mental note that there doesn’t appear to be an escort as they enter the city. She mulls on this, but doesn’t raise the point.
She gauges the way the acolyte runs into the temple, in case it’s apparent panic of their arrival. It probably isn’t, but she keeps an eye out just in case.
She also looks at Zarethria and her guards, and tries to figure out how sort of ‘on edge’ they are.

Steam just sort of marvels at the sights as they pass through the city, letting out oohs and aahs as appropriate. Once they arrive, she accepts the guard’s hand with an enthusiastic ”Ooh, thank you!”

The acolyte doesn't appear to be panicked. The guards, as always, seem to be ready to do whatever they need to, but aren't obviously about to draw their weapons or such.

Adelinde accepts the help out of the carriage with a polite "thank you", taking a few steps close to the spider carriage to subtly stretch her legs. She stops for a moment at Parveth's question and listens to the response. Taking a slight steadying breath as she resolves to keep her personal opinion on slavery to herself for the duration and busies herself with admiring the architecture of the temple as best she can from the group's position.

stuff:

The Grand Temple of Lolth is surely a sight to behold. It's beautiful in a gothic style in a way that makes it clear that it would take generations to have reached this point. It's also huge. It goes up quite a ways to the ceiling of the massive cavern, far higher than any other building in the city does. It's one of the largest, especially in terms of height, structures Adelinde has ever seen. She could probably spend days studying its features.
She also notes that there do indeed seem to be drow watching from the windows. Not crowds of them, but certainly a good number of curious onlookers. It can't be every day they receive a representative from the other city and she already knows surfacers haven't been seen in some time.

Not long later, a drow woman in elaborate purple robes and something on her head that is almost, but not quite, a crown comes out of the main doors of the temple. She is introduced as Grand Priestess Nendriia Mlezzoryn. Zarethria gives her a polite bow of the head and introduces each member of the group. Nendriia makes a casual remark about how pleased she is you were brought before her and Adelinde notes that her eyes certainly linger on Parveth a bit longer than everyone else.
Zarethria explains she wishes to discuss a matter of significant importance and that it would be important for the surfacers to be included.
Nendriia asks if any of you worship Lolth and Zarethria shakes her head no before any of you can even respond. Nendriia then remarks that then sadly the surfaces could not be allowed to enter so they could have their discussions, unless of course any of them (again significant, almost hungry, look at Parveth) would be willing to be baptized into the faith.
Again, before anyone can react to that idea Zarethria speaks. Asking about this and that part of ceremonies. The meaning of this is largely lost on the group, but Adelinde picks up that they're basically negotiating terms and doing minor political maneuvering and that Zarethria actually seems to get the upper hand by mentioning a certain tradition that involve the giving of significant gifts to the new converts and that of course lacking a drow family to provide those gifts, they would have to come from either of the cities. This maneuver works out because while it requires significant cost in resources, Nendriia would get more out of being able to "claim" the surfacers in a way as belonging to her city rather than the other.

The discussions conclude for a moment and Zarethria walks a bit away and motions for the group to come back to the spider carriage to discuss with her.
"My pardons, but we've ended up in something of a tricky situation. None of you worship Lolth, but only those who do can step foot in the Grand Temple. There is a certain room inside which is used for the most important of negotiations and the like that will ensure all are being honest in a way. But I can't speak for the truth of your experiences, which is critical here in persuading her and her being able to persuade others we aren't simply staging an attack when we prepare to move to the surface. I have managed to get a promise of gifts for any of you who would agree to be baptized into the faith of Lolth. Ones of notable worth, if that is something that would sway you. She would especially like Parveth to be doing so, as it would be quite the status symbol for her both in the eyes of her people and Lolth herself. Just so there are no misunderstandings, she's not going to ask you forswear any other gods you worship or anything like that. Simply that you also worship Lolth. Now before you think about things like the valuables being offered or the aid it would give our task here, keep in mind you could not make a worse decision that to try to deceive the Queen of Lies. So if you agree, you are truly agreeing to worship Lolth as honestly as you pay respects to any others you might currently. And I must apologize again for putting you on the spot like this, but it would go smoothest if you made a decision now. Though you can of course have a few minutes to think on this and discuss."

Parveth is seething with indignation. She practically hisses, “You wish us to pledge ourselves to a deity we know” she restrains herself from saying evil, “...little of, with no time to consider or make peace? Do you actually expect a positive answer from any of us?”
She had stopped suspecting Zarethria and the drow of Lo’Toth of leading them into a trap, but such an obvious issue not being raised earlier has flared anew her paranoia of the drow as a whole. She is also concerned about how focused they are on her. It likely is because she’s a surface elf and her accepting Lolth would be a great sign of acceptance, but the last time a surface elf had praised Lolth they were literally banished and that thought is not easily dismissed.