Watching the dwarf closely as Nebbin's voice booms across the caverns all around us, Saoirse sets her shield in front of her as she hears the dwarf shriek like a mad man. As the dwarf's form shifts and blurs in the shadowy light coming from Nebbin's hammer, an unbidden aura fills Saoirse's vision as she tries to focus on the dwarf.
The dwarf ceases its shrieking madness and regards Lucius closely for a moment. He then beckons the man over to him.
Lucius will raise a hand for the rest of the group to wait, then proceed, slowly, toward the dwarf.
"Are you...are you here to finish what them damned crusaders couldn't?! It's not like I was worshipping the demons...I was experimentin' on 'em!"
"No, we're not here to finish anything. We're just trying to get back to the surface. Do you have a way out?"
"What kind of experiments have you been doing?"
"I was learnin' my arts. Takin' energies from the lesser ones. Hehehe...they wouldn't usually survive. I gleaned a few spells I wrote in my book from one particularly tricky little babau. Killed most of my colleagues afore we got him binded. I s'pose that's what really drew the crusaders to my lab. Name's Millorn." The grubby dwarf hawks spittle at the ground, "Way up an' out? Pretty much on through the tunnel back there, " he jerks a thumb at a passage further into his "lair", "back through the mongrels. I ain't been that way in a time."
Oh. Good. A wizard of some kind. Who traffics with demons and may be losing his sanity. Lucius attempts to remain cordial.
"Millorn. Nice to meet you. I'm Lucius, of Egorian. You don't have your demons still around, do you?"
Aero tips his hat at the dwarf and eyes his companions to make sure none of them are planning anything stupid.
Nebbin looks around, like he doesn't understand what's going on.
I don't understand... He experiments on demons?
He keeps his lighted hammer held high and peers down the path the dwarf indicated.
A shrill giggle from Millorn echoes in the cavern. "No, no, nonono. No more demons here. At least, not 'till I get something to trade it. I'm not so stupid as treat with one by myself without something!"
Lucius doesn't like where this is going. "Something to trade?"
"Yes, yes, yesyesyes. You know, some artifact of power or even better—a mortal. Criminals don't have rights!! Why shouldn't we use them to further understanding?! Demons will slaver over a particularly vile criminal...why they wish for those beyond redemption is beyond me. But down here, there's only me and the odd mongrel. And since that vicious witch came to them there haven't been nearly as many of those that would serve the purpose."
Aero thinks to himself This Dwarf is pretty vile, we should make our egress from him quickly.
"Witch?" Nebbin asks nervously.
Lucius waves a hand at his compatriots. Shush. Need to keep the dwarf's attention on himself. Anyone else might still expect hostility. Or worse, to be considered trade goods.
"A witch, you say?"
An inspiration hits, and Lucius now waves his hand to the side, attempting to usher everyone across the cavern and into the other corridor, whilst he distracts the dwarf.
"Yes, yes, yesyesyes. A foul woman who's taken them evil mongrels over. She's a worshipper of, " he spits on the ground, "Baphomet. I've heard 'em whisper about some Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth. Not sure exactly what that means...other'n Baphomet bein' a minotaur."
Demon Lord of Minotaurs. Great. Shouldn't be surprising that a demon-cultist would be seeking thralls under Kenabres. And found them, in the form of degenerate troglodytes.
Though who knows if she's actually more dangerous than this lunatic who believes himself the demons' master. A regiment of Hellknights would be just the thing. Kill them all at let the Gods sort them out.
"Well, Millorn, thank you for showing us the way out. I do believe we should be going."
"Well...if you really must. I can trust yeh not to say anything 'bout me to the Crusaders...right?"
Ravana will begin to shepherd the others across the cavern. Speaking very quietly, she encourages everyone to move on. "Now is not the time to cause trouble. Let's get to the other side and decide what to do from there.
"Well...if you really must. I can trust yeh not to say anything 'bout me to the Crusaders...right?"
"Of course."
, in case, because Lucius is totally lying.
Lucius will keep himself between Millorn and the group until everyone else has made their egress through the opening he pointed out.
"Anything else you think I should know about these caverns?"
Nebbin goes where he's directed, looking nervously around to make sure he's not going to get traded to a demon.
Aero attempt to put his arm around Nebbin to help calm him as they walk across the room.
"No, not that I know of hehehehe. I mean..if I knew I'd tell a friend...right?"
The dwarf waves to you as you climb your way up the steep slope. The tunnel opens into a large cavern, about seventy feet across. Cylindrical rock formations along the walls arch up to make a dome like chamber, but the walls and floor are riddled with cracks. At the center of the cave, a stone tower that may once have reached the fifty-foot-high ceiling has collapsed onto its side.
Anevia waves her hands silently, wincing every time it causes her to shift weight onto her injured leg, and points towards a pile of rubble around the tower. A pair of...people...are digging through the rubble. You can hear sounds almost like words coming from one and the other says, "Crell?" to which a muffled voice inside the rubble answers. Once in a while the rubble shifts and the two back away slightly then resume carefully and slowly removing pieces of rock.
Nebbin sucks in his breath quickly.
"Saoirse, I think they're monsters!" A hint of panic touches his voice.
They continue to move rocks away from the rubble pile carefully.
"But they seem like nice monsters," he says. "Should we help them?"
"Let's find out who they are first. I hesitate to help just anyone down here, but I've no desire to kill everything I see either. The one looks to have been tainted by magic - it could be demonic, perhaps some type of spawn, or it could just be a mongrelman. Of course, if you think you can kill both from here before they alert others, that might be safer. I have a feeling that's not possible however.
Aero whispers "As long as we approach arms open I don't see why they'd attack us with their companion buried."
Baring any serious objections Aero will sheathe his rapier and approach with his palms proffered.
"Greetings. Can we help?"
Saoirse nods as she sheaths her sword but keeps her shield at the ready as she whispers to Nebbin quickly "Might not want to call them that if they are friendly, big guy." Saoirse steps forward with Aero, ready to defend him with her shield. Her eyes looking over the warped figure of the man standing near the rubble, a brief feeling of distaste passing over her face as she glances around the wider room, taking in her surroundings.
As you speak and approach the two mongrels drop into defensive stances but are not aggressive. One of the mongrels is a hunchbacked woman her face
so warped by tumors that she’s incapable of intelligible speech.
The man lizard you heard speak before says, "If your intentions are ill, we ask you to move on and leave us in peace. If they are good, then perhaps you can help. As you can see, misfortune has befallen us." He says this in a raspy voice, speaking in strangely accented but quite eloquent Common.
The mongrels have cleared away enough rubble away that only one large rock remains wedged in place above the small space in which something is trapped.
"Um, I might be able to help," Nebbin says nervously. "I mean, if you want. And promise you won't eat me. What happened?"
They talk like real people!
Smart people, even!
I really hope they don't want to eat me. Or that Saoirse will protect me if they do...
The half lizardman cocks his head to one side at Nebbin, but does not say anything rash. Instead he scratches his chin for a moment then says, "Rest assured...child...that we do not wish to eat you. Whatever has happened above caused rocks to fall from above and crumble this tower. Our friend, Crell, is trapped. This rock is too big for us to move with our combined strength and we two know nothing about mining. It looks unstable though for digging. Please...help us."
Nebbin sighs in relief.
Moving very slowly, and keeping a close eye on the mongrelmen, he approaches and looks over the collapse.
Nebbin approaches the pile of rubble, all trace of hesitation gone in this familiar task.
Anevia looks at the disfigured woman with pity in her eyes, "How can life be like this? Those poor First Crusaders..."
Horgus harrumphs at this but is otherwise silent.
Aravashnial, on the other hand, is intrigued and asks multitudes of questions of the (partly) beautiful mongrel. Listening to the conversation you learn that the creature's name is Lann. After a few minutes it becomes apparent that Lann is growing tired of being treated as a sideshow and politely asks the blind wizard to stop. He does after biting his next question down.
Ten minutes go by when Nebbin looks up from his work proudly, having somehow braced and levered the big boulder up enough to allow the mongrel trapped to escape.
Lann looks at the party with tears forming, "My thanks kind folk. Truly, not all of the surface would treat us with respect. Please, allow us to escort you to our city, Neatholm, where our chieftain can reward your bravery and generosity."
Lucius hangs back: he has no strength for moving rocks, and he has no particular trust for these creatures. He will float his dancing lights to provide the best lighting for the rescue effort, however.
"Oh, I don't think it was being brave. I was just, well, that's what I was trained to do. See the rock just needed to have the the right leverage placed on it. It was probably knocked down when the demons attacked above but it can happen when you're mining and quarrying too. That's probably how most people die in the quarries, but I always try to be aware of what's above me so it won't fall on me..."
And so we continue on.
Ravana has nothing to say to the mongrelmen. She doesn't trust them and keeps a close eye on their surroundings as we proceed.
"The mad dwarf down the tunnel said something about a witch taking charge of the 'mongrels'. Do you know anything about that?", Lucius asks. And you're not just taking us there to be eaten and/or sacrificed?
Saoirse relaxes after a few moments of talking with the mongrelmen and once Nebbin gets to work she helps him with positioning the pieces needed to free the third of the mongrelmen's group. Glad to do some work that doesn't involve blood for the moment, a sheen of sweat sits on Saoirse's brow as she listens to Lucius.
Turning to the lizard-man, Saoirse's tone turns questioning, "Is this true? Is there a witch among your... tribe?"
Though she isn't conscious of it, Saoirse's hand slides down to the hilt of her longsword.
Aero will start to ask several questions about ancient Sarkoris and the first crusade before catching himself, realizing that these creatures are unlikely to remember much of the history that long ago.
The mongrelman looks askance at Lucius and Saoirse briefly before responding, "You may in fact be referring to our...brethren...who are decidedly in our village. There is a woman who goes by the name Hosilla. As far as I can tell she is in league with some sort of demon. This does not bode well for Neatholm. The traitors have not looked kindly upon us. We drove them out for working with demon cultists."
As Aero starts to rapid fire questions at him he holds up a hand and chuckles, "Please. We are the remnants of the First Crusaders. I am no historian, though. If you are all amenable to following me to Neatholm, you can get your answers from one of our elders."
Nebbin follows, content to be taken somewhere there are apparently no demons. He continues to hold his hammer high, providing light for everyone.
After a time, he looks at Anevia. "Um, I can probably carry you if you want. You don't look like you'd weigh that much."
Lucius will follow the mongrelmen to their settlement.
After roughly 25 minutes of walking and chatting, Anevia is particularly interested in Lann's recountings and Aravashnial also has perked ears, you come to a wide chasm splits the tunnel floor. The floating rock dust in the air and the groans as the tunnel walls settle indicate that the tunnel split recently. The chasm is roughly 70 feet across and the light from Nebbin's hammer makes it look to be roughly 30 feet deep.
Lann uncharacteristically curses. "Well my new friends, this is unfortunate. There is another route if we can find no way across this but it is longer and more dangerous. I am also starting to worry that the tremors that have happened may have damaged Neatholm."