"...I no longer think it's a meat aftermarket situation."

(They pass by a couple of mushroom farms in the temple suburbs.)

"Deekin wonder how they maintain population if necromancers always sacrificing people."

"These look like slaves... they might be raiding drow settlements, or being supplied by the Valsharess."

"Or breeding them. Depends on time scale."

"By the descriptions we've been hearing of this 'undead army of the Valsharess', I don't think they could maintain replacement that way. Maybe they breed them under normal circumstances." He shivers. "I dislike that the circumstances caused me to say that. I look forward to slaying these necromancers."

"We could try asking them for intel but they look so scared..."

Jojo worries at his lip.

A nearby gnome with a manic air and a twitchy eye hurries over to them. "Welcome, welcome to Drearing's Deep! Where did you lot escape from? Did anyone follow you? Drearing's Deep welcomes you! Really, were you followed?"

"Who's asking?"

"Me? I'm Cordigan! I'm the Leader of the Village, the Elected Representative! Secret ballot, it was a secret ballot... yes, yes, yes, but I don't have much power, there's not much power to go around in Drearing's Deep. It's a complicated state of affairs, yes? A complicated state of affairs! There are elected officials, you see, and there are those we don't elect who have power anyway, yes?"

"Hi, Cordigan. Why do you want to know if we were followed?"

"That's what happens when people escape, you know, you get followed. You may not think you were followed but then a slave tracker shows up at the village outskirts and there you have it, followed! But don't worry about them, we're protected here from that at least in the Village of the Almost Free!"

"Almost free? How do you get the rest of the way free?"

"Oh, you don't, this is as close as it gets down here. But it's better than the damned illithid!" His eye twitches violently when he mentions the illithid. "No one takes your mind and jumbles it up and puts it all back the wrong way around and makes you remember how it used to be- no, it's much better here. Don't think about where your neighbors go, and you can say you're Almost Free!"

"Are most of the people here previously illithid-owned?"

"Oh, some, some. Some from the drow, some from the illithid, some from the beholders, even! Those who escape their chains always seem to end up here - just as you did!"

"End up here how? Just tend in this direction after escaping?"

"The tales of Drearing's Deep have spread through the slave populations, you see, but somewhat exaggerated - they think we're Truly Free, rather than Not Yet Entirely Emancipated! But when they find out, it's too late - it's harder to leave than it is to get here, and where would they go? This is as good as it gets!"

"Why is it harder to leave?"

"The guards know who's here, they know us all, and when somebody goes missing - if somebody goes missing for the wrong reasons - they set out and hunt them down! For their own protection, you see," he says unconvincingly.

"Uh-huh. What do they have you doing?"

"Oh, they let us do as we will, we do whatever we'd like, some of us farm and some of us weave and some of us disappear never to be seen again. It's a tidy little ecosystem that we have, very tidy indeed."

"I see."

"Why you think we be escaped slaves?" Deekin asks.

"Why else would you be here?" Cordigan asks. "You're not slave trackers, are you?"

"No, no, we here to kill necromancers."

Cordigan blinks. "Well that's new. If you're here to kill the necromancers... well well well well well. I think you should perhaps take a look at the gong outside the temple. But don't use it without knowing what you're going to do, it's a terrible thing to lose a new neighbor so soon."

"Do you wanna maybe tell us why we should look at the gong?"

He considers, then shrugs. "They can't do much worse than kill me, can they, and I've been talking an awful lot already. The gong is how they tell everyone to gather for a Ceremony, in other words that it's time for a sacrifice, but if the gong is rung by a villager they come to take someone away anyway. There was a little boy who used to love ringing that gong, got three people killed before someone wrung his neck. I believe, though I don't know your resources of course and I could be wrong of course, that it's the best way to get into the temple: ring the gong, present yourselves as sacrifices, and kill the guards who take you into the temple, yes?"