:I'll ask Aroon.: 

The kyree are certainly willing to host their party in the caves, which Aroon can promise are very well shielded! Their shaman, Hyrryl, should also be able to cloak them on the way in, so no one - whether gryphons or Leareth - will know where to find them. 

Even given the prophecy, they would rather not invite Leareth directly to their home, but they can propose a different set of caves ten miles away for Blai and/or whoever else is going as well to meet Leareth. If Leareth has good maps of the area, which it seems like he ought to, he should be able to find them without difficulty. 

They should wait here until they can send another message, then; presumably Leareth's messenger birds also won't be able to find them once they head to the Hot Spring Clan caves. Though it does seem like a good idea to be somewhere less exposed than this, to avoid gryphons and also have more backup if the gods send an earthquake or something next. 

Vanyel will work on copying out a map that Aroon is relaying to him in Mindspeech so he can mark where the caves apparently are. They should probably also pick and mark out a place where they can leave or pick up messages? 

Does Blai have any suggestions for what else they should make sure to communicate in this letter? 

Maybe a duplicate of what was in the last one, in case it went astray.

That's a good idea. And Vanyel will make sure he has both maps and descriptions for the proposed meeting location and the message-drop location and that this is really definitely clear. 

The nalaar is back a couple of candlemarks after noon and will cooperatively carry off a letter. 

(Message response times should probably be a bit faster once they're thirty miles further north in the foothills of the Ice Wall Mountains.) 

...Does one of the kyree mind staying here with a full second copy of the message? Just in case the nalaar gets struck by lightning or something and Leareth has no idea where to send further messages? 

They can do that. 

Then probably it makes sense to go now, so they can hopefully reach the Hot Spring Clan caves before nightfall. 

Can Blai cast his Endure Elements on them? 

Sure can.

Off they go. 

Travel by kyree sled is significantly more comfortable in daylight, with Endure Elements, and when they're in less of a hurry (and need to move slowly enough for the Companions to keep up; Stef's horse doesn't have a hope and one of the kyree will accompany her separately.) 

Yfandes takes the opportunity to fill Vanyel in on the conversation with Blai about his former god.

Vanyel...considers bringing it up again and decides that that sounds agonizing for both of them and he'll trust Yfandes to have asked all the sensible questions. His feeling is definitely mostly 'the poor man' and he doesn't think they ought to be worried about Blai betraying them. 

...He'll maybe occasionally read Blai's mind, though. 

What if the kyree are going to eat them. They seem lovely but lots of creatures seem lovely and then also eat people sometimes probably. What if they go in a cave, these interventionist yet uncommunicative gods send an earthquake, and then it falls on their heads and they all die. What if he falls off the sled and they can't find him because he doesn't have his coat which was designed to be strikingly visible in the snow. What if something dispels all their Endure Elementses and they freeze. What if Leareth becomes and/or creates an evil god and turns Valdemar into the next Nidal or something. What if he and the elementals missed a spot, with the fire, and it's smoldering and will turn this whole landscape to char and devastation. What if he needs his armor and doesn't have it. What if they have more questions about Asmodeus and he has to answer them because he's not allowed to lie and they want to know all about seminary and how he used to punish people by playing chess with them. What if Iomedae hates chess and he should not have taught Jisa to play. What if the gryphons are actually great at locating people in caves and they have bulette friends or something.

...Vanyel continues to think that those are not the thoughts of a man who's one tempting (or threatening) situation away from betraying them. Blai is apparently someone who will - go along with atrocities if in an environment where doing otherwise would involve disobeying orders and putting himself in danger - but Vanyel suspects that people who aren't like that are the exception. 

He goes back to trying not to think about his stomach. 

They reach the caves after nightfall, but nothing bad happens in the meantime, including the kyree threatening to eat anyone. 

The caves are - beautiful, inside, with floating mage-lights in several different colors and passages with walls thin enough for light to shine through the rock. There are also totally hot springs. 

Winter is barely awful at all with Endure Elements but Stef is still delighted to go in the hot springs! 

There's a nice cave area set aside for the Companions lined with plenty of hay, which Yfandes thinks is very thoughtful. 

There are also rooms (well, caves) set aside for each of the humans! They are beds made up for them - well, nests of furs, mainly - and the kyree are happy to offer them food though it's mostly meat in broth with some mushrooms. 

Aroon confirms that Hyrryl, their shaman, is watching the message-drop spot they selected from a distance. They haven't seen any new messages yet. 

So...they wait, then? 

Where did they get hay out here?? What if the mushrooms are poisonous. He doesn't have Detect Poison today. They could be fine for dire wolves and not for humans.

Yes, they wait.

Stef eats the mushrooms and does not die! 

They don't get a return message in the next several candlemarks, possibly because the nalaar can't find the relevant landmarks in the dark? 

...At this point it seems like they are probably not going to succeed at meeting today?  And should maybe sleep and expect a response in the morning. Vanyel isn't delighted about things dragging out but scrambling to meet in the middle of the night also seems like it could lead to problems. On the bright side, they probably don't need Endure Elements for everyone if some of them can stay here, so Blai will have more spell slots available for emergencies. 

They shouldn't just waste Blai's spells today though! ...Well, probably they should wait until a bit before dawn, in case Leareth does want to scramble to meet in the middle of the night, but if that doesn't happen they might as well use them! Jisa wants to know her alignment

Sure, he can do an Aura Sight here and now, he's not sure how exactly it will assess whether people are powerful enough to have an aura in a world where magic doesn't have circles but that's useful to know too. He can also do another Prophecy!