"With adventuring, I think that's usually part of the idea. I'd say I'm disappointed by the lack of ambition, but I don't doubt Kybele is going places and even her supporter is liable to be at least somewhat interesting. Well, enjoy your mushrooms."

She wanders off to go talk to Anevia for a bit.

When it comes time for the channel Ky will carry Anevia over if she'd like! It's easier than it would've been this morning.

It won't get her all the way back to better, but she's pretty sure walking on it won't make it any worse from here and it'll heal fine on its own even if she doesn't get it further attention, which is really better than you'd dare hope for after falling into a chasm and then exploring a cave system on it. Once she gets the channel, she heads back to turn in early for the night so she'll be in the best condition she can manage should she need to help out tomorrow.

If she notices it being easier, she certainly doesn't say anything about it.

The celebration is starting to die down a bit, with some people wandering off now that the channel is done, but there are still people willing to listen to any stories Kybele cares to tell. If she wants it to stop at a reasonable hour, she'll have to be the one being responsible, because they certainly won't.

She will stay up telling stories for another half an hour, maybe, making sure everybody remembers the shit out of her name, and then she will go to bed on a bed of fluffy curly springy paper.

In the morning, the various other neather tribes start to trickle in. Objectively, it's not all that many people, but the gathering point is starting to get crowded and there are dozens of small factions to keep track of. Among the newcomers, there's skepticism mixed with anticipation, but the confidence of the locals is enough to keep it down below a simmer. By the time chief Sull tells Kybele that probably everyone who plans to come already has, there's a little over three hundred people waiting; counting those that didn't come, that suggests a neather population near the upper end of Wenduag's estimate.

She can find a conspicuous place to stand and do the sword trick again!

One might naively expect that seeing the light of heaven is less impressive if you had to walk an hour or more to get to Neatholm and see it. Not so; if anything, the extra work and wait while everyone else showed up seems to have built up the anticipation, though it's not like the locals aren't impressed the second time either. Some people fall to their knees, while others start crying. Kybele might have noticed a slow buildup as people arrived and took note of her, but it's hard to compare the previous gentle incline to the current enormous jump.

The light is still as it was the second time, warm and reassuring and no incapacitating chest pain.

NOW can she make paper?

Absolutely! She's a little stronger than that requires, even.

Fuck yes. She will be able to make them a ladder out of the chasm. She nods genially to the assembled neathers, sheathes the angel sword, and goes to update Chief Sull on her ability to do this, demonstrating with a small ladder.

Chief Sull is by some of the other chiefs of the visiting tribes and Lann, discussing the feasibility of an attack on the shield maze to rescue the kids inside and how the help of an angel (or angel's sword, they aren't entirely clear on the difference) might change that. When she arrives, however, they'll all happily make time to speak with her or include her, as she prefers.

"I propose that anyone who doesn't feel prepared to take on the shield maze - children and other noncombatants, for instance - go back the way we came and climb a ladder I will create to the top of the chasm, emerging into the aboveground city. My hope is that things up there have had time to die down. Then a more focused team can attempt the maze to attempt the rescue, and I'm willing to be among them if that is desirable."

Some of them are pretty nervous about going up to the surface! They know a lot of people up there aren't necessarily going to be fans of neathers, and it would mean leaving behind everywhere they've ever known. But the quake and the tunnel collapses it caused were also fairly terrifying, and Kybele is basically an angel so she's obviously trustworthy. If Kybele is willing to flex her charisma, she can convince the doubters.

When the talk goes to logistics of a small team and who should be on it, there is a bit more disagreement. Everyone agrees it would be foolish to try without Wenduag, and Lann is also an obvious contender, but how many others they should bring depends on how much the danger scales with number of people. There's nobody else quite as useful as those two, save of course for Dyra who doesn't fight, and between the uplanders and them it's already starting to be a fairly sizable group.

"I'm willing to go up first and look for a suitable place to receive you, but I won't force anyone to climb out if they prefer to remain in their homes; I'm no kidnapper."

If she'll go first to make sure it's safe then obviously that'll be sufficient, most everyone will be willing to go then.

Not everyone brought the things they wouldn't want to leave behind, but some of them did and some of the inhabitants of Neatholm are willing to head back with the fitter visitors to escort any stragglers and pick up important things that got left behind; they probably won't get everything but they'll grab most of it. A few of the best hunters will go take the path back to the chasm and pick off any monsters that have wandered near it since Kybele's group went through yesterday, but she should have at least an hour before they get here and another before they get to the point that they can start climbing out; how soon she wants to leave depends on how long she wants to spend scouting it out before the Neathers arrive to head for the surface.

She'll go up now and see how things have shaken out, why not.

Iskander will go with her, naturally.

Anevia wants to get back to the eagle watch as soon as is feasible and expects she'll be helpful determining where is safe and proving their bonafides; she'll come with, making much better time than yesterday.

Camellia is hardly going to stay behind in Neatholm a minute longer than she has to, much less if that means that she misses out on what happens next.

Seelah is going to go wherever Kybele leads at this point, if she'll have her.

And Dyra will also ask if Kybele minds her attendance; getting to meet and trade with people from the surface is unquestionably something Abadar wants of her, and if there was a demon attack recently there might be a market for her channels. She's not interested in adventuring in general or else she'd be volunteering for the shield maze trip too, but she promises that if they need any healing while escorting her she'll consider the price paid by the journey and patch them up.

"I'd be delighted to have you. You can be a bit of a bellwether for how people react to neathers."

They'll hardly get attacked by anything on their trip; apparently most creatures territorial enough to attack armed humans over intrusion in their space or a light died attacking them yesterday or the scouts that went ahead today. Seen from the bottom in morning light, the chasm is extremely tall and looks like a nightmare to climb, but it's also relatively straight shot up and shouldn't give a ladder any particular difficulties.

Ky constructs the ladder, climbing it as she goes to anchor it with more paper - pulped and squashed and firm as wood - into the wall of the crevasse. When she's up at the top she pokes her head out and has a look around.