"Perhaps whatever happened to him lives further in the mine.. Yikes, that sounds scary.. We should hurry so the boy isn't turned into a rotting skeleton.."
Rusigari starts tugging on his mane in frustration.
"Dammit, I thought we were in the clear, here. Now you're telling me there's a strong possibility a murderer's hiding in the tunnels, where a little boy is lost?"
He calms down a bit.
"That's a problem. We had a hard time talking our way around them last time as it is. Maybe their lack of leverage this time will make a difference, but I can't be certain."
"I think it might be worth the risk, though. If the kid dies and we give them the supplies only to find that out, we may have doomed the whole village for NOTHING."
"Well its simple.. We tell em that we know they don't have the boy, but we'll still honor the agreement if they do not harass us.. If they cannot agree to that than death it shall be.."
what ever you want to choose if you want to go back down you should decide quickly in case the hobgoblin deceid to send a search party after the lost boy
"It's not that simple. They offered us the boy, Callum, on condition we give them supplies. Considering they reduced their demand from a thousand gold, I doubt there is much more play to work with. We cannot alter our terms after the fact... If our words mean nothing then all is reduced to chaos," Tenoch says with a small frown."
After a moment's thought, he cocks his head to the side and begins looking through his pack. "That being said, they did not specify an amount of supplies. If we pool together what supplies we have, we could give that to them as a response to our side of the deal. Alternatively, if there is anyone who excels at the hunt, and can make quick work, bringing in a deer or boar could help fill any remaining gaps."
"I have trail rations for 5 days, a bedroll, a mess kit, and a few gold. My blanket is currently being used to hold the body of that poor man. i could even offer my pack, which seems of high quality."
Hunt? well Tenoch if you ask nicely i am sure fred could help you out in that aspect. But it would take a bunch of hours and you have to deal with Fred. He as you might have notice sometimes need to be convinced or pleaded or bargained with.
I can offer my trail rations for 5 days and a good amount of water. but that is about it.
"I have 5 rations and some gold to offer.. Anymore and i would be naked.."
"He might just have to take what we offer or fight.. It is not the boys fault they were captured by hobgobs.. The hobgobs reasons for taking them are not valid either.. The boy should not be allowed to persih while his captures bargain for a better deal.. If the Hobgobs wont take whtat we offer than death to them i say.."
"Tenoch, they've already broken the agreement. The terms were, they give us Callum in exchange for supplies. They don't HAVE Callum. It's like when you got to a store, if the guy tells you 'I'll give you this bedroll for 5 gold pieces' and you don't have 5 gold pieces, he's NOT obligated to give you the bedroll in the hopes that he finds the gold lying on the street somewhere by luck."
Rusigari sighs.
"That said, giving him what supplies we have is probably the best way to do this. We can always get more, and it saves us the issue of fighting a band of Hobgoblins we don't know if we have the manpower to safely engage."
Rusigari opens up his pack.
"I've got...7 days worth of trail rations, a full waterskin, and some miscellaneous supplies like a bedroll, string, a whetstone, and flint and steel."
"Actually the terms were that we leave the supplies, they leave, then we can come find Jeb. He said nothing about giving him to us. Nonetheless, 22 rations and some other miscellany should suffice. If he doesn't like that... well he was so cunning regarding his words on the boy, he forgot to specify the supply amount, leaving it for us to define..."
"Let's escort Morton and Callum to the entrance first, in case the other hobgoblin has awoken and worked himself free of his bonds."
Works for me replied Sumak getting on fred's saddle
Selene will hand over 10 gold, 5 rations and 2 alchemist fire to the pile.. "Ill save the potion as a bargaining chip if he doesn't like the lot.."
"Look i know we we're supposed to wait for them to leave, but the longer we wait the less chance the other boy will have.. I say we confront them and tell them we know they don't have him.. Give them what we can and send them on there way.. If they won't take it than the sword.. We just don't have time to wait for them.."
"Agreed. The agreement was on shaky ground before but I'm not comfortable leaving to go grab a nap while the kid's lost down there. We tell them to take the supplies and get out of our way so we can get the kid. If they don't like that arrangement, tough luck."
looking at tenoch don't look down to me for support, big guy i am just a halfling. But if needed you can always ask nicely as fred is rather good at hiding and such. So he could in theory just tell us when they leave while we are farther away.
Tenoch nods. "That's reasonable. You are correct that there is a time factor we need to worry about here. But if the boy is deeper in, we will be 'leaving' the supplies behind at any rate. Let's go."
War it is then. Alright Fred this time we will be facing an enemy that is aware we are coming he replied patting fred on the neck
ZZZZzzzzZZZZ
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Lowering back down the lift and wading your way through the deepening water, you see the hobgoblin's camp partially packed up, though the sound from the elevator has them ready and aware of your approach.
Talks-With-Fists stands tall and with narrowed eyes looking at you, curling a lip in a snarl. "I thought we had a deal. I knew your kind should not be trusted. We had a deal, fair and clear, and you have re-entered my home."
"Listen here you blustering asshat." Rusigari begins with a snarl.
"We brought you your supplies. However, we have some new information that you withheld from us that changes the context of our agreement. We know you don't have the child. We were fine trusting you to keep your end of the bargain if we knew the child was in a known location, relatively safe. However, in light of the knowledge that he is wandering, lost, somewhere in this cave? No way. Your supplies are at the entrance to this cave, as much as we could gather on short notice and honestly almost more than we can safely spare. But we need to go further into this cave to find the child, Jeb."
"The way I see it our original agreement is null and void. I'm proposing another, very favorable to you now. You get the supplies you asked for, and we get the child you don't have anyway. You're getting something for nothing, basically, at this point. If I were you I'd take this charity before negotiations broke down completely."
so in the end, you let us pass to we go search for him in the lower parts of this mine and while we are gone you and your tribe can pick up your stuff leave this place and gather all the supplies we left for you at the entrance like He nodding to the half-orc Promised
So that bargain was upheld and you should be ready to leave. And since we will be busy in the lower parts of the mine you don't even have to worry about us. Not bad right?
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Talks-With-Fists eyes narrow a bit more. "Piglet is in a known location. You think I would stay here if my scouts did not explore? Mine is shallow beyond here, he hides but did not have much place to go."
His fingers drum for a moment on the hilt of his longsword, clearly calculating the odds of his own loses vs the loss of face in front of his people and if he does accept the deal how he can minimize the later. "The piglet is in our hands, he simply is in a cell of his own choosing. You think you can simply bully us, that we are weak. This is our home and it is far more defended than you seem to understand. You claim to have given supplies to offer. We will accept your word and see if you have honor. If you do, take your ransom and we will be gone. If you do not..." He makes a motion towards one of the other hobgoblins as he speaks. "You will see the kind of force you face with your bluster."
The guard motioned towards dips a hand into the water and pulls a rope up and out of it. As he does one of the wooden supports snaps, clearly a prepared trap though it isn't near any of you but rather a demonstration that you are in a more dangerous area than you are treating it. When the support breaks, within a few seconds a large section of the ceiling collapses down into the water, splashing water everywhere and causing the walls of the mine to tremble.
you want to know if we uphold our end of the bargain? Fair enough send a men up there and you will know when he comes back. We are in no hurry so we can stare at each other's throat until he comes back
"Fine." Rusigari says.
"You'll find supplies up there, plenty for a while at least."
As the hobgoblin leader passes by, Rusigari gives him a surreptitious nod of respect.
Once their gone.. "C'mon there's no time to waste we must find the child.."
Sumak will move out of the way to let the hobgoblin lead the rest out of the mines.
Tenoch keeps his eye on the hobgoblins until they leave. Once he hears the rumbling of the lift being used to crate them upwards, he turns to look around the room and any other passages out. "Indeed, let us find the other child and hope we are not too late."
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The hobgoblins had already begun to prepare a departure and it only takes a few more moments for the remnants of the camp to be broken down and them to carefully depart. As they go they keep their eyes on you, Talks-With-Fist holding back to the end as the last one out.
Advancing forward, the tunnel continues to be difficult to wade through, though you notice that there are less of the test shafts this deep down.
After about a hundred feet from the cavern the hobgoblins had taken refuge, the tunnel splits. You have been walking north along it, and it branches to the east traveling about 15 feet before ending in a wall that obviously was being dug into and stopped mid-process from the marks on the stone.
Continuing north the tunnel only moves another 10 feet before it stops at some oddly colored dark stone, the water around that area is almost black as if the tunnel continues on under the water.
Rusigari walks along, unaware of any dangers that may lurk in the cave.
Obilvious to her surroundings Selene follows the group.. "Looks like we're going for a swim"
I hate swimming.
Wouf !
i am the one who does most of it you know !
Selene looks at the dark water.. "Im not a very good swimmer.. Do we seriously think the boy would have went down there.. Perhaps we missed a side tunnel or another way.."
Tenoch looks at the stone and raps it with his knuckles. "Some baser form of adamantine. No wonder they dug around it," he says before testing the water beyond. "I'm not sure there is much choice. That passage ends, seemingly as if they didn't want to continue. Perhaps it's only a small portion that requires to be completely underwater. I'll have a look."
With that Tenoch slowly and carefully moves down into the water, testing the ground before him before putting his full weight upon it. He takes a few deep breaths before submerging himself.
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Tenoch moves forward first, testing the deeper water. It is much colder than the higher flooded tunnels as a sign that the lower tunnel has been flooded even before this current storm.
Once inside he pushes forward and tests around, but it seems the passage at least continues for some distance and with his arms stretched in front of him its hard to even see his hands in the murk.
"We should probably check elsewhere first, or come back with something that will help us get through there. more easily."
"We may have a very hard time finding the kid down here. Maybe we should go back up and grab Morton, see if he can get the kid to come out on his own?"
Tenoch comes up for air. "It seems the murk in the water interferes with my darkvision. It seems to be more than 20' along though," he says. "How can Morton help get the kid out if we don't know where he is? Do you mean for him to call out? Perhaps, but if he's through the water, he might not hear such things... Is there any spare rope? We can tie it around my waist and I can go further into the water and see if he is on the other side."
"I have some rope! This just doesn't seem to me like something a boy would do.. Perhaps we should circle back and call out for him.. At this point i think we should throw stealth out the window in favor of finding him.. If he doesn't respond than we can all go for a swim.. Thoughts?"
"Tenoch, that was my thought as well for if we need to go over there, and I would like to as I'm a naturally curious person, but by my reasoning exhausting our other options first is the best course of action. I simply don't see a scared child making his way into dark, murky, unknown depths of water if there was any other option to be had. So getting Morton to come down here and call for the child while we search around would give us a good chance of finding him I think. Morton is someone Jeb knows and probably trusts, so having him with us and calling out makes it less likely the child will see us, presume us to be enemies since he doesn't know us, and then run off or try to keep to different hiding places, actively foiling our search."
sumak will whisper in fred'ears