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'Ted' was mostly left out of these discussions, and didn't try to involve 'himself' either. They would occasionally comment on a particularly shiny piece of rock, or direct them to a split in the tunnel instead of continuing forward, but didn't do too much otherwise. Their 'spirit of adventure' didn't seem to be dampened though. Despite walking behind Gareth, 'Ted's' steps were still rather bouncy, obviously relying on dryad body trickery to actually bounce, and the grin on their face hadn't disappeared at all. Occasionally they'd pull out a lantern or pickaxe to swing by there side for a while, but inevitably they'd get 'distracted' and it would hit someone and a few glares later the offending instrument would be secured away in the seemingly bottomless pockets on the outfit.

The further they went, the more the cave started to open up. The ceiling slowly stretching until such a point where Kat could easily fly without worry of hitting anything, even if the sides hadn't really expanded all that much. It was when crystals started appearing on the ceiling, providing a soft blue glow to everything, that Kat started to feel like she was missing something. She flew up and looked around, but couldn't see anything noteworthy before the next corner. The fact nobody said anything assured her all was fine.

A few more twists and turns later and the cave practically exploded in size. The walls nearly vanished and the ceiling was so high that the blue crystals turned it into a slightly funny looking sky. The big marquee tent in the distance the only real landmark in the room. The ground was covered in a soft green moss that made you think of open fields. In fact the whole room did. Even the soft flow of air that brushed around everybody helped try to sell the fact this was a pleasant field on a nice day. The fact it was underground seemed almost lost on the scenery, though easily remembered by onlookers.

"Welcome to base camp mates. Just head on down to that big tent over there to get yourselves sorted. We're waiting for everyone before any big announcements get made so… head on down and don't keep anyone waiting!" said 'Ted' before dashing off into the distance with speed 'he' never revealed before this point. The rest of the party looked towards each other before heading towards the object in the distance.

It didn't take too long to arrive, the tent was set up in the centre of the room, and as large as it was, it was still an underground cave. It took perhaps five minutes of jogging to reach, though they heard the sound of other people long before that. Raucous laughter and the occasional heavy thumps. What those sounds indicated together was beyond Kat. Well, at least until the party pulled open the tent flaps.

Now, the first thing to note is that the tent was clearly larger on the inside than it appeared. The first room was a large sitting area at least twice the size the marquee appeared to be. Tables and chairs were strewn about, with more than enough seats for all the groups twice over. Currently, there appeared to be only one other group in attendance, a group made solely of dwarves.

At first glance, they all looked the same, reminding Kat of the all elven group, but closer inspection revealed that was simply a deliberate obfuscation on the dwarves' part. They all had a small metal shield the size of a buckler with the numbers 1-5 engraved on them, alongside a full set of plate mail that easily rivalled Gareth's in quality. They all had large helmets that likely blocked their sightlines somewhat but made it hard to see their faces.

In terms of weapons, each dwarf had a dagger at their side, and three of them had maces of appropriate size. The other two had crossbows on their backs beside their shields and a short sword on their hips. Finally, if they could be called weapons, was a bandolier filled with flasks. Each dwarf had a full bandolier, but the flaks contained liquids of varying colour. The most common was a thick brown sludge looking mixture, with the second most common being a clear but obviously viscous liquid that could nearly be qualified as a paste with grains of what looked like sand imbedded in it. They also each had a belt with two large pouches that sat somewhat in the middle and slightly towards their backs, bulging with their contents.

In terms of appearance, they all had long beards and short hair, though the short hair thing might just be because the helmets were hiding the true extent of the hair on their heads. At first glance it looked like a dusty grey colour but closer inspection proved that to be a dye… and perhaps some coal dust. The dwarfs with 1, 3 and 4 on their shields had undertones of brown in their beards they could be seen, mostly in the new growth and in a few stray hairs. The dwarf with the number 5 on their shield seemed to have a couple of blonde hairs, thought that might have been a trick of the light. Number 2 appeared to actually have the colour as their natural hair.

*Ok, I get dyeing your hair all the same colour… but why not dye it brown to match the 3 people with brown hair? Am I missing something here? It's not like they don't have brown colouring, that flask they all have at least one of looks like nearly the right colour. Wait…*

Kat counted the viscous potion and noticed that 2 had none, 5 only had one and the other three had two bottles. *Is that the hair dye? Why is it clear?! I don't understand this.*?

The final thing each dwarf had was a hip flask that looked rather small. That was of course, because they were dumping the contents into tankards that looked to hold twice the amount the flask should. Clearly, they were enchanted, and Kat thought it was rather appropriate for dwarfs to each have a magic flask for alcohol. The closest dwarf, dwarf 3, shouted, "Ay laddies, look we got the next team coming in, and they don't have a dwarf. Two fairies, two humans and a…" Three looked at Kat for a few seconds, "Ah they be the team with the demon I see. Still, a surprise they got through the blade worms so quick with just surface dwellers"

*Why do they SOUND like dwarfs? Do they actually sound like that? Am I the reason? No… no it can't be because I know Kara said SHE was the one making herself sssound like that… so what does this mean? How do accents work? Maybe I should try talking to other people on Earth that know different languages. Maybe that would answer some questions. Also… why are they called blade worms? They aren't worms at all, they looked like they were from either the mili or centi pede family.*?

While Kat was pondering, Gareth was already stepping forward. "Indeed, we finished them up with only a bit of trouble. How long have you guys been here?"

"Eh, maybe ten minutes?" said Five. "We mostly just sat down. Thought about taking our armour off… but the dryad never actually said we weren't on the clock. It was all still part of the setup for getting here. Didn't want to chance an attack just yet. Plus, we're used to the armour."

Gareth took a nearby chair. "Yup, no what you mean. It's a bit much at first but once you can fight in it, relaxing in armour for a bit isn't any real trouble. I see you've stocked up on booze for this. We didn't really think to bring anything like that."

Two shrugged, "Can't go anywhere without a good pint. I suppose most humans wouldn't understand, though I am surprised you didn't bring any water. Sure neither did we but…" Two trailed off.

Gareth grimaced. "We did ask about that and were told only weapons and armour… but perhaps you're right. Water might have been necessary."

Nixilei spoke up this time, "Perhaps but there is a stack of water barrels over there," the dwarves all whipped their heads around in surprise as the gazed at the water barrels like a personal offence.