Sialea was highly agravated with the way this was going. She looked at Luepel and said, "My apologies for the way my friend acted, he can be a grouch when he feels threatened," she glanced at Brath who had tried to be nonchalant with his dagger but failed miserably. She turned her focus back to Leupel, "By way of apology I will accompany you to speak with your chief alone." Sia smiled slightly, "Trust has to go both ways after all."
Inlé puts his face into his pawed hand.
With an even larger scowl he shruged his shoulders letting his brilliant blue eyes bore into Brath just for a moment longer before he turned away instead opening up the pouch on his side and pullingout some cloth.
"Fine there, come here friend, let us see what we can do for you, now that we evidently have time."
"Did this creature have a name your old cheif used?" He asked while bandaging its hurts.
The blindheim holds still as Celen starts wrapping its wounds in bandages. He does a great job getting all of them, even though the little glowing creature starts fidgeting and nipping at the bandages. Apparently, it doesn't find them comfortable.
"Uh..." Yadriss shakes his head. "...not really. Chief just called him 'Pet'. Loved the little thing, but couldn't think of a name for it."
"Sef, on the other hand, didn't much care for him." Luepel gestures for Sialea to follow her, pointing to a passageway to the north, at the end of a rising slope. "This way, please."
-------------------
The passageway Luepel leads you through ends in a cramped cave that's filled with metal junk covering almost every inch of the ground. The precarious pile rises up in a heaplike hut to the northwest.
Crouched before the massive pile of junk is a figure in a dusty grey cloak, picking through the pile. A couple of pouches are strapped to its legs, and the figure's bare arms are covered in jagged knives.
"Chief Sef? We've got more intrud--*ahem*--visitors." Luepel bows and scurries to the cloaked one's side.
The chief rises up and turns to face you, her cold grey eyes sizing you up. Belted at her side is a sharp-looking short sword, and it's clear that aside from the straps holding her weapons and bags on her person and her grey cowl, she's entirely naked. Oddly, she looks more well-fed than the other skulks--and there's a mane of silvery hair peeking out from under her cowl.
"...only one. My, you're bold." Her voice is sharp and commanding. "What do you want here, surfacer?"
Sialea followed Luepel into the passageway to the north and up the slope. When they reached the end of the passage the tall woman looked around at the junk covering the floor and mounding up into a hut at the far end. She caught the slip as Luepel started to call her an intruder but decided to let it go for now, there was no point in taking offense, after all it was true.
The tall lithe woman dropped a curtsy to the chief of the tribe and said, "I'm not sure I'm brave, most would likely call my lack of caution stupid or suicidal. I'd call it more of a courtesy since one of my companions, intentionally or not, threatened your people after one of them drew a dagger when we were deciding who to send down to speak with you. It seemed only right that we not start any discussion off on such a negative foot and decided to meet you, alone, to discuss our purpose." She smiled and continued, "I'm Sialea and I've come searching for my father and the group that came down here with them. They would have passed through here in the last day or two. The leader of the group is Khonnir Baine and he came to try and fix the great torch that our town used to smelt metals with. I would ask you for any information you might have on him and any help you might be able to give us, especially maps or a guide to the tunnels here." Her expression had gone from a smile to a frown of concern, to one of hope as she spoke and now went to something more rueful, "Of course we can't expect your help for nothing so if there is something you need we can try and come to an arrangement."
Sef doesn't say a word as you speak, but her eyes widen a bit at the mention of Khonnir. Luepel flinches at the sound of his name as well.
"...Khonnir? Yes. I know that name." Sef kicks a stray bit of metal. "Before his party came down here, our tribe was 40 strong. Our chief was... quite attached to this little pit of land. Wanted to defend it against all comers."
"Now... we're all that's left." She growls, one of her hands drumming against the many knives on her arms. "Yeah, your father came this way."
"As to an arrangement... well, how familiar are you with gremlins?"
-----------------
As you wait for Sialea to finish negotiations, the blindheim's eyes glow with renewed strength. It projects a beam of light past everyone, looking at the far eastern wall of the cavern.
The beam of light illuminates a smooth wall of dark grey metal bisecting the cavern, its expanse pitted and scorched but quite solid-looking. There's a strange, circular opening piercing the wall five feet off the ground.
"Huh, what's over there?" Inlé asks about the area the Blindheim pointed out.
"Oh, that?" Brath casually points a knife at the far wall. "That's where all the surfacers go nowadays. Most of the time they don't come back out again."
"Good to know. We'll probably have to go there afterwards."
Sialea seemed disturbed at what the chief said and gave an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry to hear about the conflict, the loss of so many of your people. It's a tragedy that should never have happened. As for gremlins, I've never heard of gremlins before, at least I don't think so. What can you tell me about them?"
"Well, today's your lucky day then." Sef dryly says. "Here's the deal--I've learned from watching all these surfacer parties go by that this place isn't worth defending anymore. We've lost too much, and we don't have enough resources left to justify staying here."
"That pit you passed on your way in? That's our ticket out of here--it goes all the way down to the Darklands, and we can move on from here." Sef snorts. "Of course, we're not the only ones living down here."
"There's a bunch of little gremlin beasts in the caves to the immediate northeast of here--jinkin gremlins. They're a devious bunch of little shits who love making traps out of junk. And if we try to return to the Darklands without killing them all first, I'm certain they'll seize the opportunity to pick us off as we try to leave."
"Clear 'em out, and you can help yourself to what we have left. Deal?"
Sia considered and said, "I need to consult with my companions first but I believe that would be acceptable. May I return shortly with an answer for you?"
Sef frowns and nods. "Make it fast."
"Thank you chieftain," Sia said. With that she returned to where her companions were and said, "I've spoken with their chieftain and she's offered us a deal. There are gremlins living in a cavern northeast of here. She plans to lead her people to the underdark through a nearby pit but can't do so until the gremlins are dealt with. If we clean the little bastards out she has offered us what ever supplies they are leaving behind. I don't know anything about gremlins but these are called 'Jinkin' gremlins and love building traps." She looked at her companions, "What do you think, should we help them or not? She wants an answer quickly."
Their lairs are commonly riddled with traps they make from junk. If they're especially offended, six of them can band together to lay a curse on someone, or, more likely, one of their personal items.
Edynn stood by silently throughout the entire exchange, waiting to see if she needed to act. In moments like this she tended to just silently observe....so much so that the skulks practically ignored her. It wasn't always a bad thing not to draw attention.
She watches warily as Luepel leads Sia away, then spends the rest of the time, studying the make skulks, assessing them for possible weak points. When Sia returns she lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.
"So they are leaving, and will give us what they leave behind if we kill other creatures from down here for them?" Edynn asks trying to grasp the benefit of this 'deal'.
Sia nodded, "I know it seems a little...odd, but I feel we owe them." Sie took a deep breath and her face saddened, "They used to number around forty, then Papa's second expedition came through and they're late chief decided he was tired of upworlders trespassing on their territory so he started a fight. Now there are only a handful left. They can't survive here anymore I don't think and they can't leave because the gremlins will likely chase them and pick them off one by one out of sheer malice. I know we don't owe them anything since they're in this mess because of their late leader, but he's out of the picture now and I think they're desperate." Looking for other benefits she said, "It will give us a defensible place to fall back to and rest if needed and the extra supplies could be worth it as well."
"Hmm so the last leader was a dumbass that got a bunch of them killed, can't really hold that against the ones that are left. So they want us to get rid of these gremlin critters so they can leave, and we can take what they leave behind... granted we could kinda do that anyway if they're leaving." Inlé wrinkles his nose, causing his whiskers to dance as he thinks.
"Information about where Knonnir might have gone would be more useful."
"At least we know that when their stronger forces faced your father's expedition, he was the one to walk away intact." Edynn adds.
Finishing up the bandaging of the Blindheim he sighed at the new information. They should have led with that. He didnt feel bad.. but he felt close to bad for his earlier ...reactions.
"will clearing these gremlins out be enough to get you safely to your destination? Do you have enough supplies here to get you there?"
He said simly as he rose half petting the strange frogdogs head.
"We've got enough supplies to get to where we need to go." Luepel nods. "It's getting down to the Darklands that's the hard part--our old chieftain was a sorcerer with enough magic to get the entire tribe down that pit safely. Now, since he's dead, we've got to rely on ropes and climbing to get there--and those gremlins would jump at the opportunity to cut our ropes and send us all plummeting to our deaths."
"That would suck."
Brath nods. "Royally."
Inlé nods and turns to the others.
"Then I suppose we should go find some....gremlins." Edynn says with a shrug.
"I... guess?" Inlé adds.
Sia nodded in agreement and said, "Good, thank you." With that she returned to the chieftain and said, "I'm sorry for the delay. My companions have agreed, we'll get rid of the gremlins for you. Is there anything you can tell us about the cave they are in? Any information on traps they have set up?""[/b]
Sef turns to Sialea as she returns. "...good."
"The gremlins have a bunch of traps set up throughout their little nest--nothing magical, but lots of scrap metal that they stole from us." The chieftain brushes her hand off on her cloak. "They'll probably try to lure you into them, so stay on your guard."
Nodding in agreement Sialea said, "We will Chieftain." With that she returned to her companions and said, "The cavern is that way," she pointed towards the Northeast, "I was told they have the whole area trapped and will likely try to lead us into them." She looked at the frogdog and said, "And it seems our foundling here is ours now, since his Master is dead." She looked to the skulks nearby and said, "Does the little guy have a name that you know of?"
The other skulks shake their heads. "Nope. Chief just called it 'Pet'." Yadriss says with a shrug.
"I say we call him Waffles." Inlé says before turning to the others. "He looks like a Waffles."
"What is a...waffles?"
"I've seen... halflings," he starts to says, gritting his teeth midway, "make them, you take batter and fruits and cook them between two metal shields with symbols carved into them. They're fluffy and silly looking but I've heard they taste good."
The blindheim sniffs when the word 'Waffles' is mentioned. It sits down and makes a toothy grin.
"Looks like that works. Should we head into the caves now?" Edynn asks.
"Waffles seems as good as any other name."
He began reaching down and stroking the strange creature on her large forehead. Waffles sounded like something his daughter would have called it, so it certainly was fine with him. With Everything seemingly resolved here he pulled out a new torch and lit it making sure he was ready to go.
"I guess so." Nodding to the others and Waffles, Inlé will turn and head towards the caves, blinking a few times as the priest lights a torch.
Sia seemed slightly concerned with the name but as the creature seemed to like it she simply shrugged and said, "I guess Waffles it is." She knelt to stroke the creature and feed it a little more ration as she asked Celen, "So is Waffles a male or female frogdog?"
Waffles chirps as Sia feeds him some more. He seems more comfortable with her.
The torchlight flickers as the party advances on the jinkin gremlin caves.
The first cavern the party reaches is dry and dark, with pieces of rusted metal scattered about the floor. The cavern floor is covered in a thick layer of sand and dirt. Several exits to this cavern lie to the north.
Inlé holds up his hand as spots something and moves up to investigate. "Tripwire."
Inlé's first attempt at disabling the tripwire isn't too successful. His sword almost sets the tripwire off, but he manages to keep it from doing so.
This time, Inlé manages to disarm the tripwire without setting off the myriad jagged metal shards it was rigged to.
Edynn waits as Inlé attends to what she is sure is just the first of many traps in store for them.
"Okay, got it, we can move on." Inlé calls to the others.