Chakos will life link her, and drink the potion himself.
So follow the gremlin? I don 't think we have much choice.
Astra gasps in relief as the pain leaves her due to Chakos' Life Link, healing her back to perfect condition. "Ahh... oh that feels better..." she starts, and then glances down at her gone wound, where her armor is still cut and bloodied even though underneath the skin is now intact. She feels the spot as if to verify that it's truly healed, and then shoots a smile in Chakos' direction. "Thank you!"
Several different passageways converge on a narrow ledge overlooking a rubble-filled cavern. The far wall is made of a smooth, dark gray metal. A single circular door, tightly closed, sits on the metal wall just above the upper level of the rubble.
You see three gremlins, one of them is a few inches taller and a shade of green. He is sharpening a metal spike, similar to the one Sneek pulled out of the wall.
The gremlin turns to one of his lackeys and makes guttural noises.
"What you want?" He says in broken Common. He continues eyeing you while sharpening the metal spike with his tiny short sword.
Liz looks at Chakos.
"Huh? What? How is this possible? Am I to speak with him on our behalf? I will try at least."
"Ummm, is this the common tongue? Do you understand me? Why have you attacked us? Why do those other creatures seek your deaths?"
Liz turns to Astra. Perhaps you can aid Chako's efforts?
"Abyssal? Is that what this is? But we're not in combat? How are we speaking this now?"
"You studied this language? And it is called Abyssal? Who speaks it? I never studied it. Since I was a child, this language has burst from my mouth whenever I was threatened. You and Astra are the first two who have ever understood me. I also was never able, or maybe never tried, to speak the language except when I was in trouble."
"What's up with all that weird grunting "Mosi says while looking a bit confused. "The big one said they shouldn't have brought us here, are we talking or fighting? "
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Liz looks at SNeek. Chakos has a language problem, sorry for getting distracted. Chakos, shall we see if we can solve this without fighting anymore?
"We're trying to handle this peacefully if we can. As for the grunting, apparently it's another language that I never knew I spoke."
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Astra ignores the exchange between Elizabeth and Chakos, though she can understand it she focuses on the clear and present danger in front of them for now. Linguistics can be discussed later, but perhaps not in front of a possible enemy that is waiting for a response. So, she says something, although to be honest she hasn't prepared well. So what comes out is fairly blunt. "On behalf of the gray people living nearby, we would like to convince you to leave these tunnels, and the town above. What would it take for you to move elsewhere permanently?"
The boss gremlin looks at Chakos first.
"We saw you talking to the gray men. You gonna try to kill us."
He stabs the metal spike into the floor. It goes in easily.
"They don't like us because we're better thieves than they are. But they got no magic, can only hide."
The grinning green gremlin shakes his head.
"No. We won't leave. So many things from town above that we can break. So much fun. No, no, no." He points his tiny short sword at Astra. "You leave now or we gonna fight."
He motions to the other gremlins to the side and speaks.
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"It is true that he demanded we kill you. It is also true that we refused. We do not choose to be your enemy. The choice is yours.
I came here to die with you. Or live with you. Dying ain't so hard for men like you and me, it's living that's hard; when all you ever cared about has been butchered or raped. Governments don't live together, people live together. With governments you don't always get a fair word or a fair fight. Well I've come here to give you either one, or get either one from you. I came here like this so you'll know my word of death is true. And that my word of life is then true. The bear lives here, the wolf, the antelope, the Gremlin. And so will we. Now, we'll only hunt what we need to live on, same as the Gremlin does. And every spring when the grass turns green and the Gremlin moves north, he can rest here in peace, butcher some of our cattle and jerk beef for the journey. The sign of the Gremlin, that will be on our lodge. That's my word of life. As for my word of life, it's here in my axe, there in your spike. I'm here for either one."
"They will have some fun in town, after we leave "Sneek says to the others."Gremlins bigger threat to town me thinks "
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The boss gremlin tilts his head as Chakos gives his speech. He clearly doesn't understand most of what Chakos says, but he can feel the tone from his voice. His eyes glow orange and the ever present grin is on his face.
"Jazvit does not understand." He scratches his ear and pulls out a tiny tuft of fur. "You wanna fight or not, drow?"
He taps his short sword blade against the metal spike half embedded in the ground, making a "bing"ing noise as it echoes in the cavern.
Liz looks at Chakos and shrugs. I think you spoke to high for them.
"What I meant was that we don't want to fight. We prefer to be friends. But we won't shy away from a fight either."
Jazvit scrunches his face. He narrows his orange eyes at Chakos.
"You want to be friends? Hmm. Okay, okay. You make those gray men leave our caves then. Or you go fight them, I don't care. Jazvit is tired of talking."
"Or maybe you don't want to fight because you are weak." His smile becomes wider, eyes almost twinkling.
He makes noises to his gremlins.
The other gremlins snicker.
Liz eyes Chakos
"He says he thinks we weak, tells others to get ready to attack " Sneek says to the others.
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Chakos looks intently at Jazvit, "Do not mistake our willingness to talk for weakness."
"Talk over," Jazvit hisses. "Now we see what you got to break."
Phase 1
Sneek, Chakos, Astra, Argug.
Phase 2
Gremlins
Phase 3
Elizabeth
I suppose Chakos will move on up and swing at the big boss.
At least we tried. Liz mutters.
Astra will try to attack one of the henchman gremlins, leaving the leader for someone better skilled at the arts of war, like Argug. She swings her club at one of the smaller gremlins.
I move within 30 feet and shoot at the leader.
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Argug charges at the leader (unless Sneek's attack killed him, in which case I charge at whichever seems the least injured).
Chakos tries to move towards the leader but is stalled by the mass of debris scattered in the center of the cave.
Astra moves to the western part of the cave and swings her club at the smaller gremlin. She strikes it with the wood, but a green light and motes of leaves appear and the gremlin shrugs off the blow.
Sneek fires at the gremlin boss and the bolt strikes Jazvit in the eye. The same green shield of leaves appears but the bolt penetrates nonetheless. Blood leaks down the side of his face.
"Wait, stop," Jazvit shrieks. "Jazvit leaves now."
The gremlin starts to surround himself with magic. However, Argug roars forward, crashing through the debris and cleaves down with his greataxe. Jazvit is split in half, his magic dissipates around him. The gremlin's tiny short sword remains clutched in his hand.
The other gremlins squeak and their grins disappear from their faces for a moment. Magic surrounds them and they vanish from the room.
Astra swings at one as it is leaving but catches nothing but magic dust.
"It is a shame they misinterpreted my loquacious demeanor as weakness."
Liz looks around. What happened? She tries to determine if they used any magic.
I have heard of a spell called Dimension Door that can whisk one away, they have fled the area it seems.
"Well, shall we search the area?"
"Sounds like a plan", Astra replies and starts to look around the cavern.
Liz keeps watch while the others search
Argug nods and begins to look around.
"Well, that was easy. Those sneak people must be quite weak if they feared these gremlins. They are nothing more than tricksters and cowards."
"Great hit by the way Argug."
Broken pieces of metal from dozens, if not hundreds, of machines litter the central part of this cavern. A sharpened metal spike lying next to Jazvit's corpse, along with his tiny short shord, is all that the gremlin boss left.
In front of the thick metal door to the east you find 20 gp and a yellow potion.
The spike seemed impressive, I'll check it out. Magical? Sword magical or MW?
The metal spike looks like the one that flew out from the trap Sneek disabled. It is about a foot long, sharpened piece of metal.
The sword looks like a very well made tiny short sword.
Astra will focus her searches on the metal double doors in Jazvit's chamber, and will try to determine if there is any way to get them open.