Karawanserei Bound

JP with Winteroak, Alexis, Gonyaul, Hunter:

A couple of hours later as the moon rose in the sky and most denizens of Aquilo had turned in, Markus and Balt approached your camp.

After rousing and gathering everyone around a dying fire the Ostiarium soldier turned clansmen spoke to those assembled.

"I don't have much more to offer in terms of help. Some old heads think the tunnels here connect to the Maru Caravanserai." He said shrugging. "From there the Ypogeios forks into dozens of destinations." He looked at Markus .
"Look, we don't know what happend down there. And neither do you exactly. They might still be lost down there, going slowly crazy or they might have been captured. Or fallen down some broken shaft." He said spreading his arms. "We simply just don't know enough to plan for every contingency."

"What we are saying is, either you brave the tunnels after them, maybe find some clues to what happened in the stronghold below or you try and hope they are travelling deeper into the network of tunnels and you try to get to them at Maru." Balt shrugged. "I don't have any further solutions to offer." He said.

“Thank you for your help, Balt.”

Alexis nodded to the man in gratitude.

“Maru Karawanserei - that is about two days travel on horseback, isn’t it.”

Gonyaul’s leg was bobbing up and down as he was listening to the conversation. At times he would get up and walk around and then return to his seat. The young man was struggling with patience like he had never before. This was a real test, but he would occasionally find his center and rejoin.

When he woke that morning he had a multitude of ideas for what to do when they went back down. And now it looked like none of them were going to get a chance to be implemented. And two days just to travel?

Gonyaul bowed in gratitude to the two men for trying there best even though it wasn’t the news he wanted. It is what it was now. And his attention needed to be put in the solutions and not the problems.

“So.”

Alexis concluded.

“We either chase after them, maybe sweep the stronghold in vague hopes of finding something helpful.”

Was that even feasible? Maybe. If those … Neph Kin haunted the stronghold regularly, they might have left something behind that could give them a clue.

“Or we ride to the Karawanserei, hoping to catch up or even get in front of them.”
That would have the benefit of maybe joining forces with Boyce and the others.

On the other hand, there were a lot of ifs on this route.

Gonyaul chimed in with one of his imaginative ideas, “we try and get captured down there and they take us to them?” There was a huge amount of risk with that plan.

He threw out yet another based on what Alexis stated. “What if we start huge fires in mountain and try and smoke out them like hunting burrow animals. In direction we want?”

Hunter looked at Gonyaul and shook his head as he replied, “So you want to save Voah by choking her and Tarmen with smoke?”

"If you go to Maru ask one of the Odonine to announce your going." He turned to Markus. "I have to go. I can't be late. Koshnem will have my hand cut if those weapons are not delivered on time." He said to Markus and saluted the party before he left to his duties.

Gonyaul stood and bowed to Markus. “Thank you for help”.

He dropped his two previous ideas based on Hunter’s comment. He was great at ideation, but most of the ideas were duds.

He looked to Alexis with a hopeful expression. She was tactically sound and currently more leveled headed then him.

Alexis had crossed her arms and closed her eyes in thought.

“We would go on a lot of assumptions if we pick the Karawanserei. Also, we would have to find the entrance to Ypogeios there. And still navigate a massive cave system and hope for the best.
On the other hand, if we can find them, we could enlist the help of the others. Boyce‘s expertise in particular might be helpful.“

She looked up at the others.

“…and let’s not forget they might stumble upon the entrance as well, without having any clue of the dangers.”

If they weren’t racing against time, she would have preferred to look for clues in the stronghold. Try to become a bit better prepared. But they were lacking that luxury.

“I don’t like either option, but my vote would be the Karawanserei.”

Gonyaul wished they could diversify their approach and somehow manage both, but that was not feasible. It was time to draw a line in the sand with a decision and move forwards.

Gonyaul agreed, “Karawa, karawnsee, kawa. What you say.”

Hunter was already packed and ready to leave at any time. He spoke up,”So when do we leave?”