On April 15th you resume your march, with the usual scouts out ahead...
You are following Jon and Mikodin by several hundred feet when suddenly three men step out of a shadowy opening on one side of the tunnel.
They wear leathers and carry swords. While their weapons are drawn, they do not move to attack.
"Peace, fellow surface dwellers!" says one of them. "Bharak is my name. What news have you of the passages to the west?"
"Greetings," Beth says cautiously. "I am Elizabeth. We haven't explored everything to the west, but we have battled and defeated some large creatures. Why are you down here, and what do you seek?"
Bharak grins.
"Money, riches, power, knowledge, the usual stuff! What of yourselves?"
"About the same," Beth says, returning the grin, "although maybe not in that order. Whereabouts are you from?"
Brennon eyes the newcomers warily, trying to decipher if he might know them.
Brennon does not know them.
"Gorna," he replies, in a tone that implies that everybody should know where that is. "And youselves?"
Beth hmms, and says, "We're from Sandas. Or, at least, some of us are from Sandas. That's where we're based, anyway."
"Where is that? East of Furyondy?"
"Furyondy?" Beth asks. "I've never heard of it. No, Sandas is to the south of here, in the country of Nlad. Where is Furyondy?"
Bharak throws you a strange look, then shrugs.
"Never heard of Furyondy? The paladin kingdom? It's northwest o' here...providin' it still exists. If you've never heard of it then you must be from far away. This Sandas must be WAY south!"
"What brings you in particular to these caves?"
Bharak grins again.
"We's...entrepeneurs...that's it. Searching for fame, fortune and money. The way things is in the surface world these days, we figger it's less risky down here to get rich!"
He pauses.
Beth nods. She says, deliberately vaguely, "Yep, we're more or less like that too, although we sometimes do a little moonlighting for archmages and high priests and the like. I'm not so sure it's less risky down here, although what with the political mess on the surface I know what you're talking about."
"Aye. Now that spring's here, Iuz's armies'll marchin' again. I don't want to be in their path! Safer down here!
"We've just come from the northeast, we think. These damn tunnels wind so much, it's hard to say. Too many drow that way, so we headed in this direction. What have you seen to the west?"
Farad, who has returned from the ether, smiles. "If you don't like battling drow, you'd best head on elsewhere. These tunnels to the west lead to their city or so we are told. Perhaps we can exchange maps?"
"Maps? None of us is good with ink an' paper! But if you've got maps, I'll pay you to let us take a look!" he says, as his companions grunt and nod their heads. "As for the drow, well, we'd rather not have to deal with them, but there's worse about."
"Yep," Beth says, "we've been further east, and northeast, and saw lots of drow. We even fought a few to the west, along with hill giants and bugbears. The next thing you'll find going west is a cave complex with their bodies. We went northwest from there, and came to a big cave. The passageway leads out to a ledge, and the surface is a hundred feet below that. There's a lake, and the bodies of some trolls we killed. That is, if we rememebered to burn them when we were done. If we didn't remember that, then there are probably live trolls waiting for us by now."
Bharak nods.
"Thanks for the information! We's heard that an arch-mage had a secret stronghold somewheres west of here. He went an' got himself killed last year when Crockport was beseiged, and left it unguarded...and full o' money an' magic!"
"'Ere, Bharak, shut yer gapin' gob!" growls another of the men, "Youse givin' away the shop!"
"Arrrr..." says Bharak, turning red and silent.
"Where did you first enter these caves?"
"Through a sinkhole we found while travellin' through the Hell Furnaces," the second man replies gruffly. "Orcs was after us, an' we had to escape or get eatin'."
Beth shakes her head. "Iuz? None of these names you mention are familiar to me."
The men look at you strangely.
"How long you been down here?" the gruff man asks, "I'll warrant there ain't a soul on th' surface what ain't heard o' Iuz by now."
Suddenly light dawns on her. She snaps her fingers, and says, "Furyondy! I have heard of that before! That's where Lord Malbar said he was from! Do you know a Lord Malbar? Wow... you guys are more lost than you thought. Either that, or we are. You're from Oerth, aren't you? We were there once. Wow. The reach of the Drow must be much more than we'd thought. We'll have to tell Ray...."
She trails off and looks back up at Bharak. "Sorry, got caught up in my own thoughts."
"Of course we're from Oerth! That's where ye are right now! Where'd ye think ye was?" asks Bharak, unable to keep his silence. "I ain't never heard o' no Malbar, though. If he's a lord of Furyondy then he may be dead by now."
Farad frowns. "Where do we think you are? On Earth. Another land far from Oerth. I think somehow you folks were transported magically here. Do you recall passing through any strange doors, or experiencing any moments of discontinuity?"
"No," they all say as one.
Farad shakes her head. "They might simply have wandered into a teleport trap... perhaps not even realizing it."
She looks back at her companions. "Does anybody here have any objection to our showing our maps to these folk?"
Farad shakes his heads. "If what they say is true, they will need the information more than we will."
Back to Bharak, she says, "We have a map of the Drow's main underground road, made earlier by another group. I've made a few scrawlings of the additional tunnels we've explored."
"I'll pay ye 10 gold to show it to us!" offers Bharak, jingling his coin purse.
"No need. I'll show you simply in exchange for information."
Farad also quickly gives them instructions on how to proceed to Sandas from here, where they might be able to meet with a mage who can get them back home.
They thank you, but it is clear from their expressions that they think that Farad is a little touched.
Farad pulls out some ink and a quill. "Perhaps you fellows would be so good as to tell us exactly how you found this tunnel. It would save us some time mapping it. In return you can look at our maps."
"Aye," the men say, then have a hurried confab, as they try to recall their exact movements, before turning back to you.
It takes awhile, but finally you piece together their movements: Earlier today they left the small cave complex closest to the entrance to Snurre's dungeon. Prior to that, they had come down the passage which led east out of that intersection. It turned north after a few miles, and generally meandered a little west of north for several day's travel. Midway along this passage they had passed through a cave area, and had a narrow escape from an enormous, floating creature with many eyes attached to stalks. Going by the way they talk, you realise that these men are able to travel much faster than you, owing to the fact that they are all but lightly armoured. Prior to that, they had come down a narrow passage which ran almost directly north for about three miles, before ending at a four-way intersection. They had come down a wide tunnel out of the north, which had run out of a deserted cave area. To get to the cave area they had come down a narrower passage out of the north, which had wound back and forth, before eventually terminating in a large warren of caves, which seemed to be deserted. It was in this warren that the sink hole from the surface led to.
With all of them talking, you find their description of their travels a little confusing.
With the exchange of information completed, you bid farewell to the men and continue eastwards, as they move off towards the west.
After a long day's trek, you finally make camp near the first intersection that you encountered coming in from Snurre's lair. It takes the main party a little longer to catch up with the scouts than usual.