Mirel snaps out of her daze and her near brush with death. She turns to introduce herself to their new companion.
"Well met. I am Mirel, inquisitor of the Savored Sting."
"Ah, I have not gotten to meet too many of her followers. Once this is over we should talk, I can be a fiery debater." She looks at the others, ready to move on.
Mirel raises an eyebrow, but says nothing further to the cleric. She approaches the dead dwarf and searches his body.
Searching the huecuva body you find two potions and a knotted gold ring.
In the corner, dusty and forgotten, you find a warhammer with symbols of Torag carved along the head. The weapon is weighted fabulously and feels like it was a work of a master.
The wizard will cast Detect Magic and consider the times.
"Hey, I think I have seen one of those potions before."
Terry looks at the warhammer, then at the recently deceased dwarf (Emil), and then back at the warhammer. Then he looks up at the ceiling. "Really? Really?" shaking his head the while before turning back to his companions. "Anybody here trained to use a warhammer properly? We're too short of weapons NOT to use it, but we're short enough on weapons we ought to put it in the hands where it will do us the most good."
Lirrathan shrugs noncommittally as they all fawn over the two vials, and the nice hammer. "Eh, I can use just about any weapon well, except for that crazy wierd stuff." he nods to indicate the odd whip sword Freya has. "I do have all mine, though, and prefer my swords. So if someone else needs it, have at it. Otherwise, I'll carry it if ya need."
Between Freya and Arcessentes' studies they discover the potions to be cure light wounds. The warhammer does not have any magical auras or arcane might about it...just fine craftsmanship.
The ring is pored over as well...but seems to be a mundane—albeit beautifully crafted—gold ring.
As the group of unlikelies head down the opposite passage for 40 minutes they come across stone figures carved into the walls of a cavern. Each depicts a different crusader clad in armor and wielding weapons, but their carved stone features contain expressions of sadness.
Look here. The amor these stone figures wear is unmistakably from the First Crusaders.
MIrel approaches the statues to pay her respects. They are beautiful." She says quietly.
Terry shrugs. "Okay, that suggests they have a few years behind them. It also suggests that we should be near an exit, since the oldest stuff would be closest to the way in, right?"
That was a long time ago, even for elves. he says, not confirming that they mean anything at all. He will cast Detect Magic to examine the further.
Lirrathan can appreciate the notion that this is a hall to respect ancient warriors from long ago. He isn't interested in the aesthetics, architecture and statuary is always so stagnant and dull, but he can show a little deference for those that have statues built in their honor.
On one of his returns to the group, he replies to the conversation, "Hey, it may not even be the way out, but at least it's a good sign. That means we are no longer wandering through natural tunnels. It shows signs of at least being close to civilization."
Aravashnial perks up at the mention of the First Crusaders. He shambles over towards the statues, with help of course, and feels them. "I wonder...We've always posited that the mongrelmen beneath Kenabres were descended from the First Crusaders. Poor folk, unknown to them were the destructive and twisting powers of the Abyss' energies. We could be nearing some sort of city of the mongrels."
Horgus lets loose a squeak at that but otherwise remains silent.
Anevia, however, is in open admiration at one of the statues. "Look at this one...or feel rather...This looks almost like the Grand Marshal. I wonder if it could be a great grandfather? A beautiful warrior, paladin of Iomedae. This reminds me of the stern gentleness of Ira..." She shakes her head a few times and limps back to Mirel.
Aravashnial speaks up again, "It wouldn't surprise me if it IS an ancestor of the Marshal. The deformed children of the crusaders would have left them ostracized or even subject to violence in those days. Before it was understood what was happening. You there, Freya, you said you were on a mission to rekindle relations with the mongrels, yes? Interesting that THIS grand marshal would pursue this now."
Further along the path there is a turn in the tunnel, obscuring view of what is along it.
She shrugs. "Well more of a bodyguard for those that planned to do so, but yes. Hmm." She puts her hands on her hips. "We might be getting in deeper than we thought."
Hmm. , I wonder if we can do anything to increase our chances of peaceful contact with the mongrel men based on this knowledge.
As Freya makes her innocent comment, Terry breaks out laughing. "Oh, that was . . . that . . . was fuuuunny! 'Deeper than we thought!'" He indicates the rest of the group "We were in the plaza, watching the celebration. Yes, I think we got just a little deeper than we thought." Thankfully, his laughter is winding down, but he keeps chuckling for a few more seconds.
A small campfire and a well-used bedroll, along with a few utensils and tools, sits near another cave opening in the far wall of this cavern.
A dwarf pokes at the fire, muttering to himself, his back to you.
The wizard stops quietly and watches the dwarf. He is suspicious of any creature down here along and curious about why he would have a fire. Is he cooking?
"Greetings, friend dwarf!" Terry calls out as he moves forward with no obvious hesitation. "You seem well prepared to be down here, so I take it you weren't in the festivities upstairs?" He does stop far enough away as to not pose an obvious combat threat.
Arcessentes would like to ready a Magic Missile to disrupt any spellcasting.
Lirrathan hisses through his teeth as Terry boldly gives away both their element of surprise and their position. He decides to make himself obvious as well, ensuring the dwarf sees that they are part of the same group "It is nice to see others have survived the chaos."
Mirel stands behind Terry, whip and buckler at the ready.
The dwarf stops dead for a moment.
He turns his head far enough that you can hear the vertebrae make a cracking sound.
He screeches in an insane voice "CRUSADERS!!!! YOU'LL NEVER STOP MY WORK!!!"
The arcane bolts slam into the dwarf causing him to shriek in a blood chilling manner. He curses loudly and profusely.
Lirrathan is a little halted by how quickly it escalated. Usually there is a bandying of heated words, accusations, and insults. This guy went from our hello to his hell no in less time than it takes to draw a card.
The dwarf begins an arcane sounding string of words and jerky hand movements, only to have a bolt of energy from Arcessentes' fingertips slam into him. He curses violently and moves towards the opposite end of the cave.
I will not have you casting spells if we are only going to talk good Dwarf. the wizard warns. Now sit and talk to us or I will blast you again!
For his turn the wizard (free action) moves his dancing lights to dance all around the good dwarf, one on each side of him at all 4 corners just above his head. He then moves towards the dwarf and readies again to disrupt any spell casting.
"Hey! I was TRYING to be friendly!" Terry pulls his bow and nocks one of his increasingly rare arrows, thinking about that fact before drawing back. "We CAN still do this friendly-like." As he readies to fire should the dwarf start casting again.
Lirrathan draws his blades and walks closer, moving toward encircling the dwarf to block his escape if he tries to run.
The dwarf crouches down defensively, "You're not...crusaders? Not lookin' for Millorn?"
Hardly good dwarf. Arc responds Though I am not sure I like that you would fear them. What are they to you?
The dwarf relaxes very slightly, "They drove me out of the city. Pronounced my experiments and by extension me mad! Killing the vile creatures isn't the only way to win the war...sometimes a demon egg has to be broken and sometimes that yolk has to be...used."
"Hey, the Crusaders haven't exactly been that friendly to me, either. Things got weird upstairs though. BIG DEMON came THROUGH the ward stone. We fell down here through a crack in the ground which swallowed us up. We're just trying to find our way back to the surface. Can you help a guy out, here?"
"Those both sound like extraordinarily exciting stories. I would love to hear the details if we had the time. I mean, demon eggs, that sounds AH.. MAY.. ZING. You have to go into how you had planned on making this all work out." Lirrathan tempers his sarcasm to a fine point, refining it right before he ruins it by laying it on too thick.
Mirel is not comfortable with this dwarf. The mention of using "demon eggs" makes her stomach roll. For now, however, she says nothing. Waiting to see what comes of her companions talking to it.
"Well...I do have the time. I'm just...demon's coming THROUGH the ward stone? Oh no, no, no, nononono. They'll be looking for me too. What else did you see on your way here? Were there any demons? Quick...go through this tunnel behind me...that'll lead you away from me...and upwards. I've...got to finish something." The dwarf almost rambles in these statements. He glances at you suspiciously from time to time but doesn't seem violent anymore. He goes back towards his little "camp" and hunches over the fire, muttering.
Sensing a slight advantate Arc offers We, um, were caught of guard and are not provisioned will. We would like to be on our way and would be if you could spare some provisions and information about what lies down that tunnel.