Her song wraps around Luthien's, subtly, bolstering her, falling into harmony - Luthien's voice wends through the halls and caves of the mountains, echoing from the stone, sourceless, unerring. 

(She believes so, so strongly in Luthien, and that belief, that inevitability, weaves into her song.)

It'll take a while to gauge the true effects, but - no one seems to be tracking them down just yet.

They know roughly how long it should take from Nargothrond. Luthien pushes a bit harder than she ever did there, just to be sure.

She has some sense of what is going on elsewhere, at least, especially this close, especially around her simulacrum - 

Eventually, she murmurs in that the song has succeeded and the fortress sleeps - though she thinks Luthien should keep up at least a low hum until they're all the way out.

She drops her voice to a quiet murmur, and gestures ahead.

Through the halls, then. 

Angband is enormous, a labyrinth that could defeat enemies even if it was entirely empty of defenders. She knows the way, fortunately, and leads their party winding to the throne room. The largest concentration of worrying enemies are here, several Maiar currently in attendance to the simulacrum.

But they, like every orc the party has passed, are deep asleep. The simulacrum's crown has even fallen to the stone floor, as it always does. 

Mygwainor warns them not to touch anyone, not to harm anyone - and to not try to take more than a single Silmaril.

Finrod's able to follow directions.

His knife is dwarf-made and sufficient to pry loose one of the gems. He wraps it in a thick cloth and secures it as firmly as he can in his pack.

And then - the dungeons next.

Finrod has a better touch with the prisoners than Mygwainor or Serendipitous Kill, and Luthien's still singing, so he takes care of shaking people awake.

Some recognize him. Many of the elves here followed him or his brothers, once, and they're incredulous he's made it all the way here -

But he assauges their worries enough to get them on their feet, his own song weaving in with Mygwainor and Luthien's hum to offer healing and strength. There are a lot of slaves here, though few too injured to move - anyone who can't work doesn't survive long, and Angband hasn't captured anyone for information recently. Still, Finrod organizes them into groups to look out for each other.

Carcharoth, the greatest wolf to ever live, is lying across the threshold of the Gates of Angband -

So they simply don't go that way.

There are far more doors that open out than open in, and Mygwainor leads them to freedom well away from any gate guards. 

Traveling south with the prisoners is hard - escaping from Angband is prevented by the fact that you'll likely starve if you leave as much as it is by guards and chains. They took some food and water with them, as much as they could carry, but it won't last long. 

Mygwainor's proposed solution is for some subset of herself, Luthien, and Serendipitous Kill to range ahead, leaving at least Finrod to protect the group and hunting down an orcish caravan to raid. 

Luthien will go with her. Might be better to have Serendipitous Kill's help as well, if Finrod can keep everyone calm and together by himself.

He thinks so; the big issue will be if they're attacked, and so far they've evaded and confused pursuit.

In that case, they'll take Serendipitous Kill with them. Better to be sure of disposing of the caravan quickly, that will help to keep them hidden.

Mygwainor agrees, and Serendipitous Kill is likely a better scout than either Luthien or her.

They should start before it becomes a truly pressing issue, then.

As soon as they're confident they won't be imminently attacked as a group - and preferably scouting along their path going forward, since their group won't be able to hide as trivially as just four people. Three birds, one stone - get wagons and supplies, scout the road ahead, and remove obstacles in their path.

Nice and efficient.

It'll be a good test of Luthien's combat abilities under live fire, too, if she wants to take point.

Sure, she can do that.

They do find an orcish caravan a bit ahead of their group, moving slowly toward Angband. It's large - more wagons and beasts of burden than they'll need, more guards than they usually handle with raiding camps - but the orcs seem to be at a very low level of alertness.

An ambush seems like it would be best, then. Take them by surprise and cut the numbers down as much as possible before they start fighting back.

She nods.

At range, then? Or using traps? And should they stick together or split up at all?

Traps if they can get some constructed in time, then start picking off orcs at range. They should split up at least a little, to make sure none escape in a direction they don't want. Serendipitous Kill might be best at that.

The dog seems to agree with this assessment!

(They've been having to reduce their speed to match the others. It's sometimes a bit frustrating.)

Hm... Major traps might not be fast, though they can manage traps to restrict the orcs' ability to respond to provocation in time most likely. She thinks the caravan's close to settling for the day, and certainly won't reach their larger group tonight - major traps would mean setting something along the road for tomorrow night, and also most would risk damaging the wagons and beasts of burden, which they want to take whole here.

If they can take them before they dig in to camp, that would be ideal.

Yes, which does mean they should move quickly...

Then let's set to work.