Moving along the tunnel you see no other signs of recent passage, merely wagon wheel ruts deep etched in stone. Some sixty feet along the curving tunnel there is another offshoot tunnel to the North - and just beyond that is a marker stone standing at the side of the trail. It reads in Common 5 ½ days east and north to Fasturvalt. 9 days west to Kladdenvalt and 32 days east to Vondehammer.
"Mmmmm. Anyone with an eye for tracks see anything? Otherwise, perhaps we'd better go back and see about that first side tunnel. We're going to have to be methodical if we don't see something."
"Aye, I have a small amount of skill with finding tracks. Not used to the small feet of these light steppers though, may not be able to find anything."
Let me have a look.
The silent dwarf with the close trimmed beard studies the tracks.
Padrym also looks for tracks.
And does his best not to obliterate any sign.
"Think we're going the right way?"
Love manages to find some very slight signs of spider traffic coming to and from the second northern passage, but there cannot discern much else. The southern passage seems free of recent tracks.
Hilde jots down the names. "Fasturvalt is where we're supposed to be going. Have any of you ever heard of these other two? They sound Dwarvish, but down here that's not necessarily a good sign."
"hmmm. Never heard of them, likely other villages. Mind you the fact that there is a sign at all means this is a pretty peaceful area. Also the sign is in common script. Whoever put this here has regular contact with surface dwellers. But we have folks to rescue, political geography can wait."
Love draws and loads his crossbow.
"Back to the spider trail?"
"Aye, back to this sign when we can, for now let's be saving the gnomes."
"Let's get this dealt with. We still have a city to be retaking. "
Ivy pipes up at the question "Other names svirfneblin cities... this waystone from my people"
Backtracking to where the spider trail leads North you follow it through a winding passage for a hundred feet before it opens up into a larger cavern maybe 15 ft x 40 ft. Then the drag trail suddenly stops in the passage's center.
Perception
"Look up there. Something strange. It might be an opening of some sort."
Hilde looks around, but in the wrong direction.
Having been pointed out by Agna, you can make out a patch of rock in the ceiling that looks slightly off. Narrowed eyes show it to be a flap of sticky silk that is imbedded with fragments of rock so that it blends into the ceiling. It looks like it could be opened as though a door.
At first Nar sees nothing but after getting it pointed see the door., "I see it now that it is shown to me, but I would have kept walking otherwise. Well, I'm willing to head up there and go through that door, who is with me?"
The archivist contemplates the hidden door, thinking. "Hm. Trapdoor spiders usually live in the ground, not the roof. Perhaps we could lure it out and dispose of it with missile fire."
"I am not sure how we would all be able to get ourselves up there. I'm certainly not built for climbing. It might be better to try to get one us up there to lure out whatever might be within."
"We're makin' enough noise, if they want to come at us they'll be here."
He readies his axe.
"Nice door" Love contemplates for a moment
"I suppose we could get a grapple up there, maybe pull the trap open. Or use that cart from back a bit to maybe reach?"
Love sees no sign of traps or alarms in the hidden trapdoor, clearly the inhabitants thought it's concealment sufficient to prevent disturbance.
"We need to make a decision. We going up or bringing it to us? Perhaps we can do both, one climbs up, tosses a stone, then jumps back down. I figure that should bring anything up there running."
"Let's bring it down. We've no advantage up there and most of us wouldn't be effective."
Padrym eyes his axe as he says this.
"Everyone ready and I'll make some noise."
Once the group has prepared an ambush Padrym begins banging his axe against the wall just below the trap door.
Hilde nods and unlimbers her whip.
Nar gets his dwarven longhammer out and positions himself for whatever comes out of the door, "I'm ready Padrym, let's see what comes out to play"
Agna readies an action to fire a blast at whatever might poke its head out of the hole.
Noise is made, and you wait to see if it provokes an emergence from the trap door above you... but nothing is initially forthcoming... Seconds blend into tens of seconds as you watch and wait...
Padrym will wait a few minutes before looking for a way to easily disturb the door. If one doesn't present itself, he turns to the group.
"May be nothing in there, hate to leave something at our back though."
Padyrm leaps into the air, swinging his greataxe and viciously murders the patch of gas immediately below the trapdoor... a look over to Nar gives you the thought that perhaps his long-handled hammer might be better suited to the task.
Stealth:
Padrym turns around and prepares for the assault.
"Hah, here they come. Be ready."
Nar hears nothing and sees nothing but takes Padrym's word for it and keeps his dwarven longhammer out for its length and ability to squash bugs
Perception
"Company?"
Love remains below the door spear set vs. a visitor from above.
The spiderlike figures chatter to each other in a breathy skittering dialect that you cannot understand... it would appear that they are sizing you up. Ivy retreats to a wall to lower her profile and attempt to remain hidden. The spiders do not yet advance towards you though.
Agna moves back 20' from the hole, but remains focused, ready to blast whatever comes through that hole.
"Ivy, be these the creatures that attacked you?"
Padrym steps forward and speaks, first in Dwarven, then Common.
"Who are you?"
Hilde studies the approaching creatures carefully and tries to remember if she's read anything about them before.
"Talking spiders?"
The creatures before you appear intelligent and their mannerisms do indicate that they speak and are understood by the other. Ivy gives Padrym the slightest nod to his question, but keeps herself welded to the cavern's wall.
Neither dwarven nor common is heard with understanding, and the creatures as yet maintain their position...
Hilde calls out in Undercommon. "Declare yourselves."
"You are the one's who attacked the gnomes. Where are the prisoners now," Agna requests in Terran, hoping to find a common tongue.
The use of the underground tongue of Undercommon engenders a response from the spider-beings "Why... our home... declare your selves?"
"I am Agna Tarnhammer. We are searching for a gnomish group whose wagon you appropriated not long ago. We are here to rescue the gnomes."
Hilde translates for Agna and the others.
The two spider-beings chitter to each other in the earlier language before responding in Undercommon "Gnome-things our food now... not-take, go away." they appear wary but have not yet attacked.
Initiative