The gnoll looks up at Conner leaning back in fear at Sora's snap.
keep the road clear, not let anyone find the mistress until her task is complete. he says with obvious fear in his eyes and voice.
Miyaro listens carefully to the prisoner's reply.
She casts a spell to enhance the diplomacy of an ally if anyone can speak the creature's language.
Tatsuo stares blankly at the gnoll as it babbles incoherently in its gutteral language that is probably 95% consonants. He calmly pets Sora's head as he mutters, "Is that an 'answer' or is he saying he doesn't understand?" Letting Sora guard the creature, Tatsuo moves over to visually examine the chest they had been carrying, careful not to touch it. He didn't really think it was trapped, but you never knew. Alternatively, maybe they had found the chest somewhere and were taking it to their camp to open, meaning it could be trapped.
Sensing that t=you do not understand him. the gnoll tries to make some words in common.
road, guard, wizard, gold. goblins
he points down the road in the direction you were originally traveling.
Seeing that no one spoke the creature's language, Tatsuo's focus shifts back to the creature as it started to speak in broken common. "So...they were probably told to guard the road? And they either serve a wizard or maybe killed one for his gold? Either way, seems like the only thing we've learned is that we should probably expect goblins ahead. We already knew there was at least this witch person ahead, and possibly also a wizard. But given the language barrier impeding further intel gathering, I would suggest someone just knock this fellow out, and we continue on our way down the road."
Sounds good to me
The chest contains clothing and also various other junk that the gnolls thought might be valuable.
among the stuff you do find a few valuable items:
2 bottles of wine (a local brew worth about 20gp)
a very nice dagger (mw dagger)
2 potions of CLW
Back with the rest of the group, Delkaneth looks at Tatsuo. "Maybe we can get some more out of him."
Closing his eyes he mutters a short incantation before looking back at the gnoll. "Try it again, creature. tell us about the wizard. and the gold."
"Waiting for the dramatic reveal, were you?" Tatsuo asks dryly as Del casts his spell.
"I would imagine our frontliners would benefit most from the potions. I could take the dagger as I would imagine the rest of you have better weapons, but to be honest, the gold we could get selling it would probably be more useful."
"Waiting for the dramatic reveal, were you?" Tatsuo asks dryly as Del casts his spell.
The young man smiles, not taking his eyes off the gnoll as he responds.
"More like theory vs application. I learned that trick to read inscriptions on maps, carvings on altars, that sort of thing. Saved my neck more than once.... why DO people love carving warnings into their death traps anyway? Much easier to disarm them when you know they're there.""Anyway, I forget sometimes that it works on the spoken word just as well..."
"Because they think they're smart enough to think they're the only ones who can read it but too stupid to remember where they put their traps perhaps?"
"He says their job was to keep the road clear. Seems their mistress is doing something and they are supposed to keep anyone from finding her."
Delkaneth leans back, his face relaxed while he pulls out an axe and tests its edge with his thumb. "But youre going to tell us where to find her. If you want to live, that is."