Why would Camellia bother?

Venn nods slightly at Wenduag, and then catches Anevia's eyes and smiles. 

After the next encounter with giant bugs (there's enough of them that Venn needs to use a Grease to split them up in addition to her song, and Seelah ends up taking a hit before they all drop), she finds herself walking next to Anevia.

"Hey." Anevia's friendly, but it doesn't stop her from being the hardest person in the group to get a good read on.

Venn is loving the challenge, honestly! People she can't really read are interesting, and if they're friendly at the same time that's even better. (She does not make it hard to read that she's enjoying herself, when chatting with people.)

"Hey," she replies agreeably, and then (both because she's actually very curious and because it seems like an interesting thing to ask) follows up with "so is it broadly known in Kenebras that there's people living in these caverns? That these caverns exist?"

"Everyone knows we've got Darklands connections somewhere. Most cities do if you go down far enough. And there's stories that way back when some of the crusaders got lost in them and their descendants are still lurking down there - but I thought they were just tavern stories. They never included that the 'monsters' were friendly."

She nods. "Huh. Absalom has some really huge understructures connected to the sewers there. I've only been down once or twice, but the scale of it was humbling, and I've heard many tales about the strange things that live down there." 

She glances around tactfully, and then casts message targeting Anevia and whispers: "What do you make of them?"

And once it's clear the underground people are distracted, "I trust him. I don't trust her. He's young, but he means well. We're not her people and we're not her." 

She knows not to nod while using message, and instead whispers (as she looks around, perhaps for even more giant bugs) "Yeah, Lann seems like a good kid. Wenduag..." Sigh.

"I'll see if I can get a better read on her once we stop for a rest. It'd be nice if we could rely on her; she's very good with that bow of hers."

Normal volume. "You wouldn't happen to be carrying any cold iron arrows yourself, would you?"

"Three," she admits. "Only had one quiver with me when I fell." 

She nods. Not amazing, but three is more than none, and she's not faring much better.

"I've only got five. Hopefully we can find a few more." The loot situation hasn't been super promising so far; maybe the Shield Maze will have better pickings.

Over the course of the trip to Neathholm, they find fairly little loot by adventurer standards. The neathers are happy enough about their haul of carapace and lizard scales (the bits of bug armor can be used to tip arrows, the scales sewn or glued to leather to add a little more protection).

Since Venn is talking to everyone at every opportunity, she can pick up that Lann's chief interest in life is getting to the surface that she can go crusade, that Seelah came from halfway across the world (all the way from Garund!) to go to the Worldwound because this is where the demons needed fighting, that Anevia is much more used to demon cults than she is to shooting bugs and that Camellia has very little adventuring experience, possibly none, and in spite of her snobbery is really enthusiastic about getting the chance to actually put her monster-stabbing skills to the test.

Neathholm is a tiny fishing village, and aside from the fact that it's pitch black and everyone in the city has a distinct combination of humanoid parts, animal parts and growths, not a very unusual tiny fishing village. There are a couple guards who wave to Lann and Wenduag when they come in and exchange a couple words with them "- What, more surfacers?"

"More surfacers," says a Lann who might have pretty good self-control but is meeting lots of cool foreign crusaders! And, to Venn, "You should meet Chief Sull and Dyra before we do anything, especially if you have any surfacer coins..."

She'll smile and greet people that Lann introduces her to, of course.

She knows and expects to talk to the Chief, but "who's Dyra?"

"She's our cleric!" He waves over to a woman with a facial tumor, a twisted leg and a really big smile eagerly looking at everything the foreigners are doing. She's got a key on a string 'round her neck.

Ooooh, a Cleric of Abadar! Venn introduces herself as a song-sorceress adventurer. She's curious what Dyra's selling!

Dyra is selling channels and spells and scrolls and potions and scavenged items, and buying gold and interesting coins and arrows with metal heads and various crafting ingredients she can resell and mysterious surfacer things she's never heard of and will some day figure out a purpose for!

(Lann will try to hurry them along before they can get too into conversation, they shouldn't disrespect Chief Sull by keeping him waiting.)

Oh! She doesn't want to keep Chief Sull waiting, of course.

She tells Dyra she'll be back soon, and then follows Lann to meet the Chief. 

Chief Sull is an old man, old and near-blind, peering at her only with great difficulty. His chest rattles with every breath he takes, and his voice is slightly slurred. "Uplanders. The end times are on us indeed..." 

"We found the angel's sword!" Lann says.

Cara bows deeply, hands clasped together. "Greetings, Chief Sull."

Does he look like he has something to say, or should she keep going?

"Hmmph. Well, you're polite, at leasht." He peers at her. "What'sh thish about a sword? Doeshn't sheem likely." Chief Sull has seen many things happen, very few of them good.

She nods. "Today has been filled with unlikely happenings, most of them far less fortunate than finding Lariel's sword was. It gave me a vision and bound itself to me, when I touched it, and now I can do this."

She steps well out of slicing range (to avoid giving the wrong impression!), and 'draws' the sword, holding it high above her head as light and warmth radiate off it.

"Amazing," he says. Even he can see the light.