Rose laughs loudly at the kobold, as she slowly moves closer. "Little lizard, you'd best re-consider your options. Or I will suck out your miserable little soul." Her voice sounds with an echo uncharacteristic of a tunnel, and her voice exhudes cold superiority. "Kobolds aren't made to fly, dear. They're made to fall.", she hisses, raising her hand at Peka once again, the tendrils intensifying once more.
The solitary kobold seems adamant about its chances of winning the fight, despite being outnumbered. Once again it raises its bow towards Peka and launches a deadly arrow.
But it is clearly shaking, and the looming figure of Peka terrifies it.
Smiling the wicked grin of confidence and victory, Peka steps up to close the gap between himself and the stubborn kobold.
"So glad you didn't kill yourself to escape your fate, thanks for your cooperation, now and in the future!" He cackles, reveling in the tendrils of fortune that gently caress the back of his mind.
Ducking low, the brawler plants a foot and begins a rising, spinning move while extending his other leg. Driving powerfully up, his heel reaches maximum velocity just before it connects with the kobold's dragon-esque shaped jaw, crunching teeth and bones in a sickening pop. Conciousness flows from the kobold's mind like a breaking dam releasing a lake.
"There, he should be sleeping for a bit. He isn't dead though. We can wait a few minutes for him to wake up, or force him awake and get our answers."
"Ok, so we need to ask him what he is doing here, who sent him, whether or not he was working with Hunclay, and if he had anything to do with the tower collapse. That should be a pretty decent start. We can even bribe him with a pile of copper coins if it will loosen his tongue." Peka offers to the other two as he finishes dusting off his tunic and checking the bodies over for any interesting items.
"Wake him up now, my dear.", Rose says, sitting on a rock and taking a long look at her hands. "It's not our fault his little brain can't understand when it's completely and utterly outmatched."
"And just when I lose all hope in you, Peka, you surprise me with a small ember of competence." She chuckles. "You did very well. Don't let it go to your head."
Peka smiles and winks with lewd intent at Rose, allowing the back-handed compliment to slide off and returning the treatment with something he knows will irk her just as much.
He chuckles at the thought of the back and forth in his mind, but quickly dismisses it for things more urgent requiring his attention.
The devilishly handsome man reaches down and strips the kobold of anything useful in his hands and belt. He then takes the belt from the kobold's waist and wraps it around the dragon-kin's wrists. With the little creature firmly secured, he starts gently slapping its cheek in an attempt to wake it up.
"Anyone got any smelling salts? Looks like I gambled mine away at some point..." He laments while staring at the creature in anticipation of its eyes fluttering open.
The kobold eventually wakes up from its forced slumber, and focuses its gaze upon Peka once it understands where it is and what just happens.
"You bested us," it says nonchalantly. "What do you plan for me? Death is nothing I fear."
While waiting for the boss-kobold to come about, Benedict uses his magic to stabilize the other kobolds. Perhaps they deserve to be spared, perhaps not. It all depends on what the kobolds have to say for themselves.
"We have no plans to kill" Benedict explains calmly, standing behind Peka. "Just want to know why the tower collapsed."
If the kobold is willing to speak, there is little need for harsher measures. But if it comes to that, the priest is certain his companions are much better than him in making others talk.
Peka repeats what he mentioned to the others as he was preparing to wake the little beast up.
"Who do you serve? Were you working with the human who is now dead back there; the wizard? Did you help cause the tower collapse or was it just a convenient cover for... whatever you were doing down here? What were you doing down here?"
Peka hits the little kobold with a barrage of questions, not unlike his fists earlier on its companions. Despite his disdain for the filthy draconic runt, he is surprisingly patient in repeating the questions to make sure that it answers each of them.
Rose sits down quietly, next to the kobold. "Please answer the questions, my dear.", she says politely, petting her snow owl. "Besides, you might be surprised to learn that death really isn't the worst thing that could happen to you. Rarely in the top ten, even.", she says, grinning.
"But, I digress. It's much easier for all of us to politely answer our friend here, and avoid any unnecessary interactions. You could even say that something is endangering your clan, and unless we really need to know it, we wouldn't ask further." She smiles, watching Niv clear a bloodstain off of her white coat. "Do we have a deal, darling?"
The kobold looks rather nervous, eyeing each and every human in its vicinity. "We were working for the human wizard. He wanted the tower down," the kobold says, taking a long look at Rose before continuing. "But something went awry, and the wizard was caught underneath the rubble. And he died. The rest of us stayed here, trying to come up with a good answer to give back at the tribe."
Everyone catches a lie in the kobold's story; why would Hunclay be right underneath the tower when it is about to be collapsed?
"We only ask for the truth.."Benedict mumbles, and puts away his bow. To replace the weapon, the priest draws his greataxe. He sits down, and in starts sharpening the edge, while waiting for the kobold to correct his story.
"Alright, alright!" the kobold whimpers, its calm shattering in front of your eyes. "It was our boss's idea to kill the wizard! We had him lured here to have him killed, but it didn't go clean! There wasn't supposed to be a collapse of any sorts!"
"And who might your boss be...friend?", Rose asks, raising an eyebrow. "As you can see, we are very, very polite, and expect very, very precise and concise answers.", she whispers in a velvety voice. "And then you might even run away, very, very fast."
Peka looks from Benedict's axe sharpening to the kobold, back to the axe, then back to the kobold again, exaggerating his head movements to emphasis the predicament the sniveling dragon-kin is in.
"And once you have told us who your boss is, you can tell us why they wanted the wizard dead. Go ahead, just keep pouring your heart out little guy. This awful experience will be all over soon enough. The quicker you tell us everything, the faster it will be done." Peka's voice is condescendingly soothing as he plucks on the strings of the kobold's fear.
Just for good measure, he cracks his knuckles.
The kobold looks frightened. "Our tribe's leader, Roaghaz!" the kobold whimpers. "I can only guess his motives! Our leader is a great magician, too, maybe he wanted to steal the human wizard's powers and spells!"
Rose sighs. "That's not how it works... Unless you found a book on the wizard? And if you did, where is it?", she asks hungrily. Shaking her head. "Shall we take the kobold along? I'd love to headlessly chase after a kobold leader, but the little gnats are crafty, and I'm afraid I'm somewhat... spent.", she relays. "Plus, we can always use... paraphernalia to aid us in our questioning in town. And the lady would want proof, and wouldn't we all just love impressing her with our thoughtfulness, Peka?", Rose chuckles, aiming the crossbow at the kobold. "I say we take what we can, and head back up. This hole is utterly rancid.", she furrows her nose.
"Many questions unanswered: Why the tower collapsed? Why the kobolds and the wizard are here? Why the dead kobold in front of the wizard's home? I feel this one is not giving the answers..."
Benedict puts away the whetstone, and gets up.
"I want to get back up, too. Is there another way out of here?"
The kobold points at the hole at the other branch of the low corridor. "There's a tunnel, but it leads up to our tribe's nest!"
The kobold glances at Rose, but the woman is far too intimidating for a prolonged eye contact. "No, we found no book from the wizard!" they whimper.
"Don't like the idea of walking into kobolds' lair," Benedict thinks aloud. "We have done what we promised the baroness, time to go back and report our findings."
Peka paints a frown on his face at the prospect of leaving what might be a good fight up in the lair.
"Sure we've figured out how the tower collapsed, except we don't really know exactly how, just that the kobolds were responsible. We don't know why... There must be some other answer, isn't there?" He asks, his curiosity oozing out of each word he speaks. He inadvertently looks to Rose with a hopeful look in his eye that she might agree with him.
"If we could bring the kobold tribe leader back to town to stand trial for his crimes... ooohhh... Just think of fame! It might be small town backwater fame, but it would be fame nonetheless!"
I might drink for free for at least a week!
Rose rolls her eyes. "And we'll get that... tomorrow, my dear. What if someone finds the hoard of... copper while we're gone delving?", she suggests. "Grab the little gnat and let's go to town."
The team gag and tie up the kobold, and head back up to the surface. All the way back through the strange sludge corridor and numerous turns and rooms.
When they get upside, the sun is still up although it felt like an eternity underground. The road around the Witch's Tower (or what's left of it) is less traversed, and no one is immediately within sight. The closest building is either the estate or the caretaker's hut.
The kobold makes little effort to escape, knowing Benedict's arrows would pierce them after the first three steps.
Peka points to the large residential structure just down the road a ways and nudges the kobold towards it.
"Well we still can't report on why they knocked the tower down, but at least we know who has that information. Come to think of it, the Baroness did advise us against going to the quarry." he dusts a bothersome spot off of his breeches as they trudge towards the estate.
"But at least we have a few more pieces of the puzzle. I'm thinking we keep the news about Hunclay to ourselves, or at least let the Baroness know that it cannot get out as public news just yet. We don't want to start a panic." He finishes with a smirk.
Peka begins to walk towards the wizard's manor, taking a few extra steps before realizing he was targeting the wrong house.
"Whoops! Heh. Honest mistake..." he grins sheepishly before turning the other direction and heading towards the Baroness' manor.
"A good night's rest after we report, then I say we head back in, unless something else comes up. Might need to rent a mule or two in order to gather those crates of pennies." he says, somewhat jovially.
Rose nods. "I agree, dear.", she says laconically, petting her owl on the head. "We might want to toss the gnat in the cells, however. I wouldn't want it dirtying up the nice tavern!", she says with a vicious smile. "Hm. I suggest we go and see if the wizard had a... manservant or a butler. Would be only polite to inform the man." And find the damned spellbook, too..., Rose thinks.
"Dangerous to enter wizard's den uninvited" Benedict mutters, remembering the dead kobold front of Hunclay's door. "But there might be some clues on his motivations"
"But first, the baroness" he then states, and starts following Peka.
As they return to the Baroness and are richly rewarded with so many gold coins (in addition to those found in the dungeon), even Peka decides the money's worth the trouble. They wholly dismiss the town's need for "adventurers", regarding the profession too risky and life-threatening, and instead continuing their journey to other profitable endeavours. Or retire with the money.