After a short time, you hear foot steps coming down the passageway. Soon after, two figures began to show in the light of your makeshift torches. The first figure is the tall, gangly creature from before. The second is a woman who carries herself confidently. She wears barely more than rags around her sensitive areas. Despite the lack of light, her skin temains dark and her eyes ate even darker. She sizes you all up with a mix of curiosity and contempt. "I present Sef, our leader," says Luepel. Sef keeps silent, waiting for you to speak first.
"We came here to investigate the disappearance of some residents of Torch, above-ground," Harrash tells Sef. "So far we have managed to find some bodies. There have also been other problems in Torch we thought might have originated down here. We didn't know this was your home, but now that we find you here, I would like to ask for permission to pass through."
"I know of who you speak. We have seen several groups tred through our tunnels. They have all fallen to the dangers of the caves. You are but another party of interlopers. Nonetheless, if you seek the travel through, I would ask for your help.
Our numbers have been severly diminished from our last interaction with surface dwellers, and right in the middle of our war with the jinkin who also live down here. I want you to wipe out their nest. I also ask that you keep your people out of our home without letting us know first. Do these for us and you may come and go as you please. We can also give you the gear we have collected from other surface dwellers and a special treasure.
"Excuse me, but what is a 'Jinkin'?"
"A type of fey. They love mischeif and tricks, particularly when they cause serious harm to the individuals pranked. They have proven to be very resilient to harm, and hard to chase down since they can teleport. Their most dangerous ability, though, is their ability to curse items in their posession. A favorite tactic is to steal something, curse it, then put it back without giving themselves away."
"What is your answer?", asks Sef.
"Please give us a moment to discuss it."
Skivven turns back to the others, and gets them to confer in a "huddle."
"What do you think? I don't like the idea of being someone's 'goon squad,' but having allies down here might be very handy."
"Being a 'goon squad' is what we were hired to do," Harrash says. "Besides, we would probably run into problems with the fey anyway, and we might as well get their goodwill and be rewarded for it. And if we refuse, we might not be granted permission to pass."
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, until my enemy is gone. I wouldn't trust these "Skulks" not to renege on the deal once the "Jinkins" are dealt with."
"And we don't even know who is in the right in this war. These skulks could have started it. We really know nothing about what is going on beyond what they tell us. Maybe we could offer to mediate between the two groups?"
"Or we could take him up on his offer in order to pass through. If we run into these jinkins, we can decide for ourselves the best course of action."
"Oh, I agree Harrash. If these Jinkin's are indeed fey, odds are we will run into them eventually. I'm just saying be prepared for the Skulks to turn on us at their earliest convenience."
"Have you made a decision?" asks Sef.
"I think we agreed to accept your offer. Is that correct?" he asks those around him.
Skivven nods, quietly. Looks like this is the only way.
"Excellent," Sef rasps. She smiles to reveal a mouth full of tiny, sharp teeth. "Follow me."
She takes a torch from Luepel and motions for you to come forward, then she heads into the tunnel leading farther into Black Hill Cave. Your journey takes you to a small village hidden inside a massive cavern. Other skulks watch you from huts built into the sides of the cave. They appear to be blackened from some kind of heat and the residents give you a wide berth. As you pass through the village, several of the skulks attempt to approach you, but a look from Sef cowes them back. Others seem to vanish into thin air as you get close. Finally, you reach a second cave. This one is filled with scrap metal and debris with a cot off to one corner. A pile of equipment lies next to the bed. "That's the equipment we took off the surface dwellers we killed. Take what you want from it."
The pile consists of three suits of studded leather armor, a masterwork buckler, a shortbow with 11 arrows, a rapier, two shortswords, a masterwork sap, two potions of cure moderate wounds, a sunrod, two sets of masterwork thieves' tools, a scroll of shield, a scroll of identify and 143gp
Alarmed, Harrash tries to keep his composure as he asks, "What surface dwellers did you kill?"
"The first group of surface dwellers to come down here made a bargain with our previous cheif to kill anyone who follows her through the door. There were the stupid halflings that got themselves killed by beetles, the thugs that we destroyed, and the group led by the wizard. We tried to follow through on our word, butvhe came upon us like a storm and damn near blasted a new tunnel upto the surface. He even killed our old leader. The other two groups before you, we avoided."
Trem looks at the gear that is offered. "I could use the scroll here." He points at the scroll of identify. "Sadly, the other one isn't something I could use, but it does have some value. If no one wants it, maybe we could exchange it for something I use."
When hearing about the amount of people that passed through here before them, Trem is surprised. "Maybe... Maybe the first group is responsible for the flame going off. Wonder who the others were..."
"Wizard you say? What did his group do after encountering you?"
To the others,
"That sounds like it may have been Khonnir."
"They went through a door made of something I've never seen before. I can show it to you after you take care of the Jinkin."
On the farside of the junk cave, there is a tight passageway. "The Jinkin are through that tunnel," Sef points. "Their leader goes by the name of Jazvit. Kill him and the rest should scatter."
"I think there's no more reason to stay here," Harrash says. "Shall we go see what can be found in that tunnel?"
"May as well be off then," Skivven says. But once they are out of earshot of the skulks, he whispers,
"But if there's a way we can peacefully resolve this I think we should try it. I don't want to be a hired killer unless there's no other way."
"You... You really think we, ah, can resolve this without fighting? That would be great." Trem follow along, trying to stay out of the way to not be a nuisance if a fight would arise.
The tunnel turns into a honeycomb of tight passages that most of the party has to stoop awkwardly to get through. Only Skivven feels comfortable.
As the party is passing a bend, Valeria feela a sting in her calf. She looks down to see a little creature about 2ft tall pulling several inches of steel out of her leg. It stands on two legs like a humanoid, but it's covered with blue-gray scales. Large, bat ears lay flat against the back of its head. Yellow eyes reflect the light from your makeshift torches. That combined with it's toothy smile gives it a truly sinister visage.
Skivven blinks and looks down.
"That must be a Jinkin!"
Well, if it is going to attack without warning...
Skivven steps back and levels his crossbow and shoots.
Skivven's crossbow bolt barely misses, but still ricochets harmlessly off the stone floor. The jinkin responds with a high pitched cackle and retreats back into the shelter of alcove, hiding from view.
Everyone can go.
Harrash and his ape follow the jinkin into the alcove, joining together to surround it. "This thing doesn't seem to be interested in making peace," he notes as he swings his sword at it. Seeing that both he and his ape managed to miss, he rallies the ape to make another attempt.
Harrash stops just before entering the alcove as he spots a tripwire at the entrance. From his position, he has a better view of the alcove and it seems as if the gremlin has vanished.
Are you ready to carry on?
Harrash walks away, puzzled. "The jinkin has disappeared. Maybe we should look somewhere else."
"Hm, a trap. Shall I disarm it? It seems to lead to a dead end..."
Skivven finds that the tripwire runs to other cords leading up the wall to a spring in the ceiling which would drop a spike onto whoever set it off. He disables it easily.
But as he suspected it does in fact lead to a dead end.
Continuing on through the caves, Skivven finds another tripwire, built similarly to the one he just disabled. He is easily able to disable this one too.
"More traps... Good thing you are here, Mister Skivven." Trem stays in the back of the group, not wanting to trigger any traps. "I wonder much further we have to travel."
"My pleasure! We will probably find more of these... when smaller creatures have to face larger ones, booby traps are one of the things they do to even the odds."
"Also, watch out for your things. If what the Skulks say is true, we might have our pockets picked and then our items will have curses laid on them."
"Tricky bastards." Valeria thinks to herself as Skivven finds a second trap. At his warning, Valeria draws her pistol and loads it.
Weapon in hand she scans her surroundings, hoping to see any jinkins before they can get too close.
As you continue through the cave, Valeria spots the third tripwire. Being rather familiar with the workings of the gremlins' trap, Skivven is able to disable it quickly.
"I'm somewhat adept at taking care of them, but not used to finding them."
Arrenopos will position himself near the front.
As Skivven finishes disabling the trap, a jinkin falls from a nook in the ceiling and tries to strike Harrash.
"Hey... There is one..." Pointing at the little creature, Trem try to get a better sight on the thing. "Can you... can you understand us?" He asks, hoping that the creature would stop its attack.
"Where did this come from?!" Harrash exclaims with alarm, as he just manages to dodge it.
Harrash's companion can go.