Despite their mutual reservations, the two women stuck together as they took on the goblins. Just like they had on the bridge of the nautiloid, they fought like a well oiled machine. Lae'zel out front, striking down foe after foe with her blade. Shadowheart hanging back, keeping the githyanki healed up while flinging firebolts and sacred flames.
The closest they came to defeat was when the worg attacked. The wild beast sent Shadowheart into a fit of anxiety and fear. Images flashed through her head of a wolf in a dark forest, cornering a scared little girl. It's teeth bared, it's fur standing on its end. The picture of it was too much for the cleric to take. She would have remained paralyzed, had Lae'zel not decapitated it in a single stroke. It took a few seconds for Shadowheart to shake off the fear, but she eventually returned to the fight.
However, while Lae'zel and Shadowheart performed admirably in the battle, the real hero of the day was a young warlock. He leapt down the cliffs with the grace of an experienced fighter, skewering goblins as he did. His eldritch blasts provided the cover fire for Lae'zel and Shadowheart, keeping the archers at bay. He even landed the killing blow on their leader, a rapier through the throat ending his life. With their leader gone, the goblins fled in disarray.
"Good riddance," Lae'zel stated flatly, sheathing her sword. "My sa'varsh always said that goblins were the lowliest of creatures. It seems he was right."
"Turns out gith teachings aren't total rubbish," Shadowheart sighed, still shaken up by her encounter with the worg. "Should we go after them?"
"The vermin aren't worth the effort," Lae'zel replied. "Besides, those tieflings who captured me mentioned one of their kin having met a githyanki. We should find and interrogate them. If he's seen my people, it could bring us closer to a creche."
"Or... this looks like a druids grove," Shadowheart reasoned. "There could be a healer in there. One skilled enough to get these tadpoles out of our skulls."
"Perhaps..." Lae'zel raised an eyebrow, a bit impressed at the cleric's knowledge. "A zaith'isk is still the only device that can remove a ghaik tadpole. I doubt these druids have anything close to gith technology. But... it cannot hurt to check, I suppose."
There minds made up, the two adventurers made their way into the Emerald Grove. Despite being strangers, the girls were still allowed in by the tieflings. It seems their performance on the battlefield had earned them that much, at least. For a druid's grove, though, there were almost more tieflings than druids! Refugees crowded the halls and caverns, much to the chagrin of some of the locals. There was a huge mix of personalities in this place.
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