"Mongrelfolk," Lann insists.

"I've heard of you... I wasn't sure if you were real or not."

"Mongrels is the name upsiders gave us when they cast us out. What did you hear of us?" Wenduag asks pointedly.

"...That you were some kind of tieflings." Anevia tries to look a little embarrassed.

Yes fine Wenduag you win let's get on with the important thing here.

"The way to the surface - the shortest one we know of - is through a dungeon called the Shield Maze. Only the strongest hunters survive it; most who go in don't come out again. Some of our younglings foolishly decided to brave it, to try to get to the surface." 

"We're looking for a sword left by an angel who fought with the first crusaders. It was kept in this room, with other artifacts, because we couldn't use it ourselves, but it can still serve as a symbol to rally the tribe to action and go rescue them before it's too late."

A roomful of First Crusade artifacts, you say? Gord's magic sense is tingling!

Unfortunately, only one actually magical artifact seems to have been kept in this room, but that just means he immediately zeroes in on the right pile of rocks. Carefully moving them out of the way reveals the dusty hilt of a longsword.

If these 'mongrels' can't bear to touch it, Gord doesn't care to try it himself. He already has a magic sword that likes him fine, anyway. He gestures the resident paladin forward.

Seelah grasps the sword's hilt. And - stands there, swaying a bit.

"Are you all right?" When that fails to elicit a response, he pokes her cautiously with the pommel of his sword.

As if released by his touch, a flash of warm light sweeps through the chamber. It leaves everyone feeling just a little bit more vibrant and alive. It doesn't dazzle your eyes, but it might dazzle your mind a little, if you're unused to the touch of Heaven.

In its wake, Seelah looks metaphorically as well as literally radiant.

"I saw a vision", she says reverently. "Lariel, an angel from Heaven, who fought in the First Crusade, was killed here. By a monster who looked like Deskari, though he wasn't really Deskari. And he left his sword, here in the stone, for someone to find, and to - pick up his struggle, his war to protect the innocent."

"I can't serve in the place of an angel. But I can carry this sword, until I find someone who will."

Lann has almost literal stars in his eyes.

"Will you help us rescue our younglings? If you bring the sword to our village and show it to Chief Sull, I'm sure he'll agree."

Then he remembers the surface was just attacked by Literally Deskari. This probably-important paladin's duty is presumably back in Kenabres. "The quickest way we know of to the surface is through the Maze, for those strong enough to make it and clever enough to navigate it, and our village is almost on the way there. We'll help guide you if you help us in return; Wenduag is the best of us at navigating the Maze."

"I am completely out of spells and intend to wait until tomorrow morning before trying this maze. Of course you don't have to wait for me, if you think you can save these younglings and the delay is too dangerous." It sounds like a fine and noble mission, but Gord isn't going to risk his life for strangers and in the company of strangers while he's weak and disoriented.

Anevia has very much noticed that Gord is, in fact, the strongest of their party; if he wants to rely on his spells more than his sword, then she definitely wants him at full power.

"I don't think my returning to the city a day sooner is important enough to risk dying on the way there," she comments. "We would all be better off with some rest."

"I hate to say this, but Chief Sull definitely won't get the tribe into the Maze before tomorrow morning, no matter what we do. The younglings are in great danger, but we wouldn't be here looking for the sword if we thought we could go after them alone."

Seelah really hates sitting around not doing anything while there are people waiting to be rescued. She's also the only one of them who isn't out of spells (by virtue of not having any to begin with), other than Anevia who has a broken leg. But if even the kids' relatives think it's too risky, she's not likely to persuade them otherwise, and she's not going to try it alone against everyone's advice.

...she still hates it, though. How can she be worthy of carrying Lariel's sword to its rightful wielder if she won't even risk herself to save some children?

On the way to the mongrelfolk village, Wenduag taps Seelah's shoulder and gestures for her to drop back for a bit so they can speak in private.

"Lann's idea is madness. He wants the whole tribe to go through the Maze and to the surface, because he lived on the surface as a child and he dreams of going back. He thinks a magic sword will solve everything, and he is going to get everyone killed. The maze is dangerous, and no place for any but the strongest hunters. Leading more children and old folk into it would be sacrificing them, as prey."

"When I was young and foolish, and Lann was playing with dolls up on the surface" - she hisses the last word - "I and my friends tried the Maze. We died, one by one, to traps and monsters and things we couldn't even see in the dark, and in the end I was the only one who made it back out alive. I had to step over my friends' bodies and leave them behind to survive, and I'm not going to do that again."

"When we get to the village, don't show them the angel's sword. Tell them you fell down, and are going back, and will rescue the younglings on your way if you can" - Wenduag does have some idea of how to appeal to a paladin - "don't tell them to follow you. I will guide you through the Maze, and without any weaklings to slow us down we might even make it through alive."

Seelah can totally appreciate the idea of not asking noncombatants and the young and old to follow her into a dungeon!! She's not very clear on why Lann wants to do that.

When they arrive at the village, it's not immediately clear that it deserves the name. It's a collection of tents and ramshackle lean-tos, built on an island in a small lake. Because it's only lit by torches, it takes a few minutes for them to realize that's all there is to it.

That's supposed to be a self-sufficient settlement? Do they have a druid or something, or do they eat only fish and flesh and fungi?

Maybe it's just a hunters' camp away from the main village.

Lann leads them up a small knoll and towards an elderly-looking mongrelperson.

"Chief Sull! We found the angel's sword! And we found a paladin who can wield it!" He points at Seelah. "Gather the tribe, anyone who can hold a weapon! The young ones are still alive, we can still save them!"

"Uplandersh... The end timesh are upon ush, indeed..."

No two mongrelfolk they've seen in the village look the same. Chief Sull looks like a were-rat deformed by old age at least as much as by curse, one eye blind and the other tearing, a few tufts of white hair hanging onto his bare head and his breath rattling in his lungs. He makes Gord think of the Pharasmin dioramas (or, The End Times Are Upon Us, figuratively speaking) - the end of a progression starting with brash youngling and mature adult and continuing past wise elder into sad decrepitude.

"Ah... Lann, you're always chashing your dreams, too hashty for your own good", Chief Sull declares. "Uplandersh can be paladinsh and wield the Light of Heaven... But such thingsh don't happen to ush."

"This paladin didn't just - happen to wander by to collect the sword and be on her way! She's here to help us! Even if we can't wield the Light of Heaven, we can still follow it, so we should! Seelah, please, show him the sword's light!" He looks at her imploringly.

The sword is clearly something more to these people than merely a powerful weapon. Or even a sign of Heaven's favor: it's the sword they care about, not her being a paladin.

But while she's not sure what showing them the sword means, she can't possibly hide it from them, not after Lann and Wenduag already saw it and indeed told her about it in the first place and led her here because she has it.

When she takes the sword out and concentrates on it, like she does every morning in her prayers, it glows again. Not as brightly as before, a soothing and comforting light rather than a blinding one. A touch of Heaven upon every soul that does not know how to seek it out themselves, everyone who lives in this dark and forgotten corner of the world where it is never morning.

Indeed, the sight of the sword's light is enough to move Chief Sull to tears.

"Sho it'sh true... The angel did not forshake ush, no... Back, back from the dead he came, to shave our children..." He goes on in this vein for a while, but Gord's looking to see how the others are taking it. 

Lann looks righteously happy; he must be feeling vindicated. Wenduag is angry (but she always seems angry) and trying to hide it, her eyes darting about, looking for allies and potential foes. Seelah seems troubled; Camellia seems uncaring. Anevia is... probably the only one here who's actually any good at hiding their thoughts.

Chief Sull shakes his head. "All the tribesh will gather for thish. I will shend out the meshengers. Wait with ush, uplandersh. Rest in our hutsh. Our home ish your home."

"If the tribe follows you into the Maze, their blood will be on your hands!" Wenduag hisses furiously into Seelah's ear.