"Sounds like a plan to me!", the guard says cheerfully to Darius. "Enjoy your stay!" He waves to the party as the leave, and then dutifully goes about throwing away the juice boxes that Duncan drank.
You make yourselves scarce from the guard headquarters, and soon find yourselves several streets away. As you turn a corner, you see a small red-haired boy, perhaps nine or ten years old, sitting with his back against the wall. His face is tear-streaked, with dark smudges covering his freckled cheeks. His hands are clutched around a small battered tin cup that contains a single copper coin. From his neck hangs a tattered sign with the word "Orphan" written on it.
Upon seeing your group, the boy attempts to dry his eyes with the torn sleeve of his shirt, and smiles bravely at you. "*sniff* Copper for a new orphan?"
Darius thinks for a moment, before drawing a silver piece from his coin pouch, nonchalantly flicking it into the child's cup with an agile flick of the wrist. While not particularly concerned with the child's fate, Darius sees no point in not taking this occasion to make himself look good.
"Huh, why you orphan boy." Duncan is clearly dismayed at the sight of a child in such an obvious state of distress.
The coin sails into the tin cup, circling the side on the way down. "Fank you, sah! *sniffle* May th' gods bless ya!" His eyes glisten as he fishes the coin out of his cup. "Bless me soul, if that's no' a noble, may Ai be struck by lightnin'!"
At Duncan's innocent question, the boy's face falls. His lower lip quivers for a moment before the tears begin to fall from his eyes. "It's me da. 'E's been lost in the dungeons under the castle for two day now. I can only assume the worst, sirs and frog. *choke*"
Dungeons under the castle? That's sounds like a treasure trove. Little boy, Darius may have given you a coin, but I will give you a dad back. I promise. Fin, why don't you seal the promise for me?
Fin the fox pads up the boy next to the orphan and waits patiently.
Grub crosses his arms, a gesture Sparkly is quick to mimic. "Tiny human, how father go in castle, eh? He leave clues?"
He looks back at the party and shrugs. "What, Grubyub not idiot, want quick way to dungeons..." The little goblin snickers at his own words. "Heh, Grub want dungeon." He shakes off the giggles and refocuses so he looks more serious, one hand on his hip, the other on the haft of his chopper. "So?"
The boy looks to you as hope begins to spring into his eyes. "Really, sirs? You'll help me da? Oh, thank you, sirs! You all are a blessing from the Heavens, and that's the truth!" He stands and fishes the two coins from his cup, stowing them in the pocket of his ragged pants. "Just follow me, sirs, I'll lead the way." He reaches out to take Drysten's hand and begins to slowly lead you through the Union's winding passages.
As you travel, you make your way past quite a few merchant stalls and pushcarts. As they catch sight of the boy, many of them narrow their eyes at him or clench their fists tightly. One pudgy apple seller actually goes so far to throw herself bodily over her apple basket as she spies the boy.
If Fester notices anything, he decides to keep it to himself.
Perception
LeGrande's head is whipping about taking in the sites of this new experience, having trouble focusing on anything in particular.
Darius is far too busy looking at his own handsome and elegant reflection in his pocket mirror to notice anything.
Drysten is watching the boy leading him by the hand and not paying attention to those around him.
For a while, Grub thinks the angry faces are meant for him. In fact, he begins snarling out of habit. But then he sees the old woman knock her stuff over trying to get at the...tiny human?
"Hey, dirt boy, why people hate you? You a thief?" Grub asks, eyeing him carefully.
Duncan is oblivious to reality at this moment. Singing "We gonna rescue his Pa, we gonna rescue his Pa." quietly to himself.
"The name's Culum, sir," the boy replies meekly to Grubyub. "Culum McCreedy. And I might have taken some food from Miss Tucker, but that were to save me da. He was sick at the time, he was, and if he didn't have food in his belly he would have died, and that's the truth."
Well, not so much. He's a good liar, but Culum's definitely lying.
After a time, Culum leads you to a two-story shop. He opens the door, and leads you to an empty shopfront. A door behind the counter lies ajar, and a narrow staircase leads up to the second floor beyond. In the center of the floor is a trap door, which is bolted shut. "That it, sirs. That's where me poor ol' da went."
Grubyub studies the boy's face as he speaks... ...and decides he's telling the truth. Besides, how many times had Grub stolen meat for the Great Bip the Gnoll? "Sound sad, Call'em Greedy. You make good orphan, get big money on street with your sad story." He flaps over to the boy and pats him on the shoulder. "But no worry, Mr. Fancypants and the rest of us will find your daddy."
The red-eyed goblin shrugs a bit to get his bow set right over his shoulder, then lowers his horseychopper to point a the trap door on the ground. His floppy ears twitch a bit as he listens for danger in the room or down thru the trap door. ...and hears nothing.
"Hey, Sparkly, have a sniff around. Tell Grubyub if you find anything bad."
The raccoon sniffs around the trapdoor, and scratches at the outline in the floor, trying to dig his hand into the space and lift the door. Grubyub's seen this before from Sparkly - his sniffer's found something!
"Hm... Seems your rat has found something." Darius observes, taking a closer look himself.
Darius sees nothing in particularly strange or dangerous about the trapdoor. He doesn't even see any sort of latch keeping it closed.
"An unlocked door is an invitation to adventure!" Fester says, tugging to open the trapdoor (and seemingly not realizing that he is standing atop it).
Grub rolls up his sleeves and steps forward. "One side, Festerjester, Sparkly's onto something!"
The goblin shoulders past him and commences tugging.
Once Fester is no longer standing on it, Grubyub has no trouble lifting the trapdoor. It opens to reveal a sturdy wooden staircase leading downward. Attached to the wall to either side of the staircase is a hand rail. Light pours up from the rough hewn stone passageways beneath, and you can see a small wooden guard house built into the southern wall, and an elbow-high shelf (just above eye-level for children, halflings and the like) just above the guard house. On the front of the guard house is a sign.
Once the door is open, Sparkly darts down the stairs. He bolts past the guard house and down the passageway to the west.
Fester pauses in his pursuit long enough to read the sign.
"See! Told you Sparkly find something!" Grubyub hot-foots it down the stairs and follows after his beloved companion. "Wait up you furry gut-sack!"
...to catch a glimpse of danger so I'm not running into a pike or something...
...track Sparkly if I loose him.
Dristen will chase after Grubyub. " Come on Fin, it's treasure time!
Darius will follow carefully in the middle of the pack, careful not to leave himself too exposed to ambushes, and keeps an eye out for traps.
Adults - 3 Copper
Children under 12 - Free
Grubyub has no trouble giving chase to Sparkly, mostly because the passage can only go one direction. It opens into a large chamber with grey, fitted-stone walls and a finely-polished limestone floor. A few reddish-brown stalactites and stalagmites protrude from the ceiling and floor, attesting to the fact that this is a natural chamber. In the center of the room are four pinewood tables, each surrounded by five stools. Against the northern wall stands an elbow-high counter. Two beer taps are built into the counter, and a small stone fireplace is recessed into the wall behind the counter. There's another sign above the counter, this one larger.
Ale:
Pixie mug 10 copper
Peasant mug 1 silver
Jumbo mug 2 silver
Monsterburger 1 silver
Full tour Free
Three small passages lead out of the chamber to the north, east and south. An arrow painted at the entrance to the southern passage has a profile of a sea serpent emblazoned upon it. A similar arrow pointing toward the third passage, the one you just entered from, has an EXIT sign mounted above it. Other exists from the chamber include a wooden door set into the southern wall, and a large natural passage leading further to the west. A plaque is mounted beside the last passage.
This way to the tremendous monster of gigantic proportions!
As he enters this large chamber, Sparkly immediately scrambles up the side of the counter and leaps into the back of the bar, scrounging around behind the counter, chittering to himself.
LeGrande enters the room carefully, fully expecting the beginning of his underground quest, only to relax with a somewhat disappointed frown at the commercialization.
Then his eyes rest on the bigger sign. "Really". "Tours for free". "What's the catch"? he says out loud to nobody in particular.
Grubyub hitches up his breeches a bit after coming to a stop in the large chamber, taking advantage of the proximity of his hand and his derriere to commence a quick scratch. He flaps after Sparkly, absently smelling at his scratching hand while he looks about the place. Not knowing how to read, he gives the signs a miss.
Then he hears his animal companion rooting around behind the bar. Grub grins, his red eyes narrowing to little illumined slits and he steps a bit livelier. He casually looks about as he says in Common; "Hey, Sparkly, get out of there, you no be digging and stealing!"
...looking around for others besides the party in the area as his interest is piqued by the raccoon's search.
+2 vs Humans ...as Grub pretends he wants Sparkly to stop searching for something interesting.
But the little raccoon knows Grub's heart isn't in it. Grubyub waddles around the corner of the counter finding Sparkly digging and rooting for...well something Sparkly.
"Çfarë keni, djalosh?" Grub whispers as he ducks behind the counter.
Dristen glances around the room, taking it all in. I'm finally on a real adventure! My first choice to make: what was it they say in the guild?... Always go left, that's it. Dristen positions himself facing from the exit, holds up both his hands, and points with the one without a tattoo to the door with the plaque. "We should always go left." He looks at the plaque. "Excellent, tremendously large monster means tremendously large treasure. Ooooh, maybe it's a dragon guarding it's treasure horde!"
By the time Grubyub catches up to his larcenous little companion, Sparkly has already leveraged one of the cabinets behind the bars open, and is chittering excitedly as several onions and tomatoes come rolling out. He has grabbed one of the tomatoes and is snacking on one as his goblin master approaches. He squeaks excitedly, and rolls an onion to Grubyub.
Darius takes a look around, wondering if the shop's proprietor is anywhere near.
Fester peers down the west passage. [b]"Oooh! We should go this way,"[b] he says, pointing.
The little goblin ranger squats down next to his friend and grab the onion, chomping happily. He glances around at the supplies in the cabinets searching for any bottles of alcohol. Oh but they would make great fire bombs! Maybe he could be like Grande Frogman, making magical burning potions.
"Grubs likes the fire
he'll see to the spark
lighting all the briars
burning doggies till they bark!"
" Hej, Sparkly, hodiť nejaké jedlo navyše v balení. Možno budeme musieť neskôr!"
Grub sings his little tune as he searches for bottles of alcohol.
...then he heard "treasue". He leaps up and clasps the edge of the bar, peering over. "Where treasure? Let's go!"
"Why this place seem like bar? Why put a bar in a dungeon?" Duncan looks around the room, wondering where they should go first.
Darius glances about, but doesn't find any sort of sign of the shopkeep anywhere. In fact, he suspects that nobody's been here in a few days, as the tomatoes and onions that Grubyub and Sparkly are snacking on have started to go off. Grubyub's rifles through the supplies in the cabinet, finding a number of untapped kegs of ale, several dozen mugs in three different sizes, twenty steak knives, thirty cloth napkins, three lanterns and fifteen flasks of oil.
Culum timidly creeps into the hall behind you, staying close to Duncan. "Do you think my da will be alright, sir?"
In the absense of a shopkeeper, Darius looks around to find the bar's cashbox.
"If they're going to call this place a dungeon, then I shall treat it like a dungeon."
Duncan looks down at the little boy. "We will find him. You will see, mister sideburns will save him and you can go back to being a happy family."
*scrabble scrabble, scrabble*
Grub hops down from the bar, feeling a twinge of excitement as Festerjester and Dirtstaindaggers have found the way to go. He sees his companion scratching at the cask of ale. "Not now, Sparkly! We drink when get back..." He steps closer to the raccoon and whispers in his little, fur tufted ear. "Zažgemo to mesto na poti ven. Grub našli mastne stvari!"
Their dancing done, the little green hero got back to business. Into his pack Grub puts 5 of the steak knives - because pointy things are useful! - then thinking better of it after a moment he uses some of the napkins to cover the sharpy points in case Sparkly wants to root around.
That done, he slips a pair of the flasks of oil into hip pouch, then gathers up the rest - as many as he can hold - in his arms like a man embracing his lover after years apart, then flaps around the bar. He drops them unceremoniously on the floor in the center of the room. "Hey Grandpoobah!" he calls to leGrande, a wicked grin on his little goblin face. "Big present for you! Grubyub find oily, burny stuff. You use make big fire booms!" He clasps his hands together and jumps up and down, then lets his hands fly outwards as he makes whoosh and boom sounds.
Grubyub spins and dances his way back to the bar and grabs up his horseychopper, whistling for Sparkly and heading towards the western passage. "Yeah yeah, Kill'em, we find you family! No problem!" He steps to the western door and looks a the other two diminutive members of the party. "What see, Festerjester? You Dirtstaindagger? You two find treasure?" Grub makes stabbing motions down the hallway, a motion quickly mimicked by Sparkly. "Maybe there giant horsey guarding treasure?"
"Yes, yes," Darius confirms Dunc's affirmation offhandedly, clearly disinterested. "Of course we will."
LeGrande starts to roll his eyes at the pyromaniac Goblin, then realizes he has a point, before stopping to pick up a few of the flasks.
"These might be useful to throw at something at that".
Darius digs around behind the counter and, sure enough, finds a hidden drawer under the bar. It's untrapped and unlocked, and finds a collection of silver and copper inside.
Perhaps not as subtly as intended, Darius sweeps up the coins into his pouch, then rises back from behind the counter and hops over it nonchalantly, acting as though nothing had happened.
"Enormous proportions, is it? Sounds... dangerous."
I didn't find treasure yet, but I'm about to. You guys better keep up. Dristen will start walking down the west passage to the monster.
Grubyub chitters with glee and falls in line with the Halfling. "Grub and friends finds the treasure, find Killemall's pappy!"
He darts forward and busies himself with checking for tracks to see if there's hopefully a hoof print or something. Oh, but he still feels the nagging regret in his little goblin heart for not having burned down the stables outside the castle gates. All those tasty rotten horsies...
...tracking
The goblin begins searching the ground leading into the passage, looking for tracks. As he does he begins forming a tune in his mind...
Once was a goblin named Gruuuub,
who loves to hits with his cluuuub.
He cracks thems teeths
and eats doggee beefs
soes alls doggies in lotsa trouuuub
le...
...listening for trouble but apparently distracted by his mind-music.
...but he apparently has no trouble falling into his old habits of being sneaky red-eyed goblin.
Behind him, still wearing his tin cup helmet, Sparkly falls in next to Drysten's fox...wait a second, did the raccoon just wink an eye at the fox?
You make your way west, and start traversing a long, wide natural corridor. Drysten's fox gives Sparkly a curious sniff, and jumps a bit away from the larcenous raccoon. Tracking is difficult here, as stone is a poor medium to read, and all Grubyub is able to note is that the floor slowly gradually slopes downward to the west. About a hundred feet down the passage is a sign posted on the wall.
500 Feet to Terrible Monster of Gigantic Proportions!
"I'll... uh.. bring up the rear!" Darius declares with utmost courage and definitely not shaking in his trousers like a first-order coward. "It wouldn't do to be ambushed.
Fester, seeing that he is missing out on seeing the Terrible Monster of Gigantic Proportions(TM), he quickly follows Grubby down the corridor.
"How big you think this monster is?"