She sighs, dusts herself off, and casts dancing lights.

It's dirty and rocky, covered with debris. She can still hear the sounds of battle distantly from overhead; doesn't sound like it's going well for anyone. There's also the sound of voices coming from That Way, too quiet to make out the words.

She tries not to think too hard about the battle - she can't help anyone there. 

She'll move towards the sounds of voices, lights orbiting her head, trying to avoid making too much noise as she goes. (Her chest hurts, but she doesn't seem to be bleeding or anything, and if Heal couldn't fix it, she doesn't have any better plan than "hope it gets better".)

"All right, I - think -"

People! She picks up the pace a bit, calling out to them. "Hello?" 

She's a big paladin, Garundi, with fancy armor and the sunburst sword on her shield and on an amulet hanging from her belt. "Hey! Can you lend a hand! There's someone down there!" Beneath these rocks.

(Sunburst sword, that's... Iomedae, good.)

She hurries over to help! She has only average strength, but hopefully working together, they can figure something out.

It's not hard as long as you work together!

An injured woman. From her bow and leather armor she's an adventurer, and from the fact that she can, with great difficulty, still stand in spite of formerly being covered with rocks suggests she's not bad at being one. "Thanks for the help," Anevia says. "Get a cure, either of you? I think my leg's broken."

"Wish I did," Seelah says.

Oh that looks painful. She winces sympathetically.

"I have a wand for cure light, let me dig it out."

She removes her shortbow, digs into her pack, and pulls out her trusty healing stick. 

Cure Light Wounds!

That doesn't get all her health back, but it gets some. "Thanks. Anevia, with the Eagle Watch." She can put a bit more weight on her leg, at least.

"Seelah! Paladin of Iomedae."

She passes the wand to her off-hand to offer handshakes, smiling at them both. "I'm Venn, a song-sorceress from Absalom. A blessing to meet you both, though I wish it were under better circumstances."

"Don't we all. I was expecting to fight at the Wound, but not quite this fast!"

Absalom's a long way away, but you meet all kinds of people at the Wound.

(Venn will wait for one of them to ask about it instead of volunteering how she got here - she'd like to build rapport before making implausible claims, even if they are also true.)

She looks at Anevia's leg with some concern. "...how bad is it? I could spare another Cure."

"I'm fine as long as I don't get into hand-to-hand," Anevia says. "If I do and they're good, I'm dead. Do you know what's down here?"

Seelah shakes her head.

Venn shakes her head as well. "I haven't seen anything besides the two of you." 

"Let's take it slow and see what we run into? I have Grease, and a song to make hitting things easier." 

She slots her wand into her belt for easier access, just in case, and restraps her backpack.

"Got it. Well, goddess's favor and we'll be out soon." Seelah has a sword and shield and armor and is prepared to go first. "And I can get a smite in if we see a demon, but only once today."

"I can shoot," Anevia says, "though 'Beth's the real adventurer."

"I'll stick by Anevia; if anything comes for us, I'm alright with a rapier."

She draws her bow and nods at Seelah. "Lead the way, and let me know where you want my lights." 

"Not much of a leader," Seelah says, scratching her head. "Guess in front?" Then she squares her shoulders and starts moving. 

...fair enough! In that case, she'll see about directing the party by moving her lights out in the way she wants them to go. 

"So who's 'Beth?" she asks Anevia curiously, as they start walking.

"My wife." Anevia is Used To The Inevitable Response. "Irabeth. She's a paladin of Iomedae, too, up there." If she's still alive. (Anevia really, really hopes she's still alive. There's no one like her in all the world - priorities.)

(At the mention of "wife" she gets an approving smile and a nod! Weird Foreigner Thing, perhaps?)

"Ah, that's twice as many Paladins of Iomedae as I've met in my whole life! Though of course she's much more popular around here than back home, or so I've heard..."

Venn is charming and great at pretending to be calm under pressure and is happy to keep making light conversation with the two of them until they run into something more pressing! She has to recast dancing lights every minute, but she can do that while walking just fine.

More pressing thing: Giant bugs!

When the centipede comes charging at Seelah she has her shield braced and out and it tries to bite through wood, and then she's whacking it with her sword, blade sometimes skittering off the carapace, sometimes finding a vulnerability.

She draws her bow, but before she notches her first arrow she starts singing, in a language neither Anevia and Seelah know.

The sound of her voice fills them both with supernatural courage and sureness, making it easier for them to strike true and strike hard. 

And guided by that song, Anevia puts two good arrows into it and it stops actively moving.

Seelah hits it a couple more times on reflex before she realizes it's dead, then throws the body back with a shove of her shield. 

"Whew! That sure was something."

Venn doesn't stop singing right away, but the magic fades out of the song as soon as the bug falls. She finishes the verse and then puts her bow down.

Then she claps her hands and smiles happily at them both. "And nobody got hurt! Good work, both of you."

"Nope! That's why I go first."

She nods happily.  

Time for more follow the dancing lights?

Yup! Hey, there's some voices -

- (A split-second calculation, a split second to think of a lie)

- "Come help! I think he's dying!" The voice is aristocratic and haughty, but with all the tension you'd expect with a dying man.

- Come on! Let's help!

Um!

She hurries behind Seelah, glancing back to make sure Anevia is okay. 

Anevia can catch up.

There's a dead elf on the ground, covered in blood - must've hit an artery - and a living half-elf standing over him. The survivor has a sword and chainmail and is almost as bloody, too, possibly because she's trying to keep pressure on one of the many wounds covering his body and it's really not working.

He looks mauled.

"I tried a cure, but I think he's gone," she says.

Venn rushes forward and then - stops, her stomach churning.

She doesn't really know much about healing, but she's not an idiot. There's blood everywhere, and the man isn't breathing. 

"What happened to him?" She doesn't bother trying to keep the horror out of her voice. It's not her first time seeing a dead body, of course but she's never seen a freshly-mauled corpse like this, and she is really not enjoying it.

"Demons," says the half-elf. "It must have been the demons who attacked him."

"Damn," Seelah says. She hasn't seen anything like this since she left Geb. Does she know any prayers that are right for this? "Inheritor, watch over this man's soul," she says. 

Venn knows a few things about demons! She crouches down, peering curiously at the wounds.

...she has no idea what kind of demon caused them. Welp.

She closes the corpse's eyes, murmurs a prayer to Shelyn, and turns to look at the half-elf.

"Thank you for trying to save him," she says, softly but earnestly.

"I did my best." Her heart's still beating fast. "We should be careful; the demons who did it might still be around."

"Right." Peer peer peer. "I'm Seelah, I'm a paladin."

"Anevia, with the Eagle Watch."

(...Huh.)

"I'm Venn, a song-sorceress. Honored to meet you, though of course I wish it could have been in better circumstances." 

(She will noooot offer to shake hands. On account of the blood.) 

"Camellia," she says. Now that the rush is fading she's returning to a purer aristocratic hauteur. "I speak with the spirits of Sarkoris." And I'm richer than you. "Can you Presdigitate?" 

(...Huh.)

She raises an eyebrow at that pronounced shift back into aristocratic tone. Is this really the time for that? 

"I can, yes! When the threat of demons is less imminent I would be happy to assist you."

She casts dancing lights and moves them out into the darkness.

Camellia sniffs. Clearly these people just don't know who's important.

...Venn is deeply confused by her priorities but will diplomatically move on from that, without commenting or giving anyone a weird look. 

She attempts to diffuse the mild awkwardness by changing the subject!

Does anyone in the group speak a sign language? (look, look, look around for demons)

The Eagle Watch has a simple one...

There are more giant bugs of various types. They kill them. Camellia turns out to be competent at stabbing things, even if she's disdainful of the bugs as being worth her time. 

There are not more demons, but it isn't that long before they find themselves in a new part of the caverns, one that looks somewhat less natural and more man-made, nor until they can hear the sounds of an argument.

(Venn mostly sings, in the fights; when she does get a chance to fire an arrow or two, it's clear she's nothing special with a bow.)

She peers curiously at the walls, pointing out the change to the others, and cups her ears when the argument becomes audible. 

"No, I won't just give up! It's got to be around there somewhere!" she can hear someone proclaim.

"And I said - "

"Wenduag!"

More people! Not speaking Abyssal! She calls out.

"Hello?"