Marvin takes careful aim and fires two more arrows at the enemy. The first one lands a solid shot to the creatures abdomen, piercing the creatures leathery skin. It falls over, into the pool it sprung forth from. It doesn't move, not a single twitch. The second shot goes wide left, hitting nothing but wall.
Once he is sure the mephit is dead Eb moves into the room and searches it quickly. Maybe there's more neglected valuabeles lying around, he quips to the others.
Afterwards he suggests to the others that they should keep moving on.
Dolgrin also quickly searched the room, slightly intrigued by the mephit's former home.
If he didn't find anything, he would suggest to continue as we have.
Marvin will give the area a once over .
"Sounds like a plan." and do as indicated.
Marvin, Eb and Dolgrin both search the room, but turn up nothing other than the pool of water. The group progresses forward, deeper into the tunnels and come across what appears to be a barracks . Four racks, run along the northern wall, with a more rack running along the eastern wall.
search again
Dolgrin will assist in the search.
Marvin and Dolgrin, head into the barracks room. They see the five weapon racks spread apart. After judging the racks, their relative size and pegs to hold various equipment; both men judge the racks to hold a total of 15 weapons, 5 suits of armor; or a mixture of both.
There is nothing of note in the room, whether it be valuables or gear.
Eb purses his lips and looks at the neatly arrayed equipment. Do you think its worth our time to sabotage this equipment? Tie the weapons to the racks, cut the armor straps, that sort of thing?
Sorry, I forgot to mention the racks were empty.
"Hmm, must be a lot of them if they used all this space to store their stuff. Might as well move on. "
"Be my guest" was all that Dolgrin said.
Binx, commands his loyal servant to head into the next area, just in case something hostile exists; while Dolgrin and Thorakiz follow behind to provide extra muscle in the event.
The skeleton, walks forward and Dolgrin and Thorakiz watch as he walks into a crude dining area. Four tables, and eight chairs fill this room.
Ahh! Break time! Eb settles himself into one of the chairs. Its hard to tell if the creaking is from his bones or the old chair.
Dolgrin looked around in the room.
Marvin will also take a look around.
Marvin, Dolgrin and Eb; all start to scour the room for whatever they find as interesting or useful. All three notice that the food is half-eaten, as if something interrupted their meals.
Dolgrin, doesn't note anything of importance, but Eb's and Marvin's eyes catch a glint of something on the ground, under a half-eaten plate of food. Upon closer inspection, it is a coin.
The coin is steel and seems like it has seen better days of old. It is dinged, scratched, and in rough shape overall. On one side is stamped/etched with the outline of a dwarf battleaxe; the flip side is stamped/etched with a simple roman numeral "V".
Binx, picks up the coin and flips it over in his hands. he closes his eyes, and searches his memories for whatever it could mean. A few moments later, he realizes how the coin connects to everything. While studying...his...well...various studies he came across a passage in a book.
The passage wrote about how Duergar, Deep Gnomes, Drow and few other sentient races who lived below ground created their own currency. As a means to facilitate trade and commerce, to better combat against anarchy. The Dark dwarven currency, according to the text dates back 7-9 "strikings" of the coin. A "I" strike is going to be the most valuable compared to a "IX" strike.
The coins are still rare in the sense that to obtain one, you would have to either know or come into contact with a Deep races to obtain one.
Binx looks over the condition of the coin, and determines its value to be between 300-500gp
To whom? Eb muses. The deep races we've met so far today have all tried to kill us rather than trade with us.
"Hmm, doesn't look like much to me, but whatever. "
After looking at the coin, and debating the hostility they have been shown so far; the group decides to continue their systematic exploration of the tunnels. Exploring away from the commotion of battle, they leave the mess hall and proceed down a long passageway for about 40 feet, before becoming a 20 foot round room connecting to another passageway going south.
The room is devoid of anything, and the sounds of battle are very faint as they echo through the caverns.
"Let's press onward", Dolgrin stated.
The party keeps pushing ahead, first south and then following the stony passage west back towards the sound of the battle. Eb was getting more comfortable with having a horrific fiery skeleton animated by pure evil in their midst, and by the time they pause at a northern branch in the tunnel, Eb makes odd stick man walking signs with his fingers to Binx, asking him to sent the skeletal scout out to have a look.
"Wonder who they are fighting? "
Eb shrugs and grins at Marvin's question. Not us... then he has a thought. Say Marvin, do you think you could get close enough to see what's going on down there without anyne noticing?
"I suppose I could try, but with the flaming skull and bones already on the way, I'm pretty sure any sneaking won't do much good. They will be warned. Anyway, I'll give it a go. "
The party turns the corner, and proceeds down the corridor. The sounds of battle, increasing ever so slightly as they go farther down the tunnel. Broken crossbow bolts litter the area, leading down to another turn.
Binx, commands his skeleton to proceed forward into the unexplored area, while Marvin decides to try and sneak closer to the action that has gotten louder down the corridor that connected to natural spring that was home to the water mephit.
Dolgrin investigated the area where mr.skeleton was moving to.
Marvin will 'sneak' to the place I put him on the map, right before the open square so he's hiding behind a wall.
Dolgrin and Marvin go towards the next opening. The tunnel winds to their right, and opens into a 10 foot diameter area, before continuing to their right into what they assume is another larger area.
The sounds of battle seem to be the same veracity if not slightly more coming from the hallway farther down.
A mercantile assessment Mr. Binx. But then again we are essentially mercenaries here, so I find I must concur. North it is!
"Yeah, I can see the logic there. "
"Let's get moving then." With these words Dolgrin proceeded to the north inspecting the area.
_______________________
Dolgrin and Marvin proceed forward, cautiously into the next area north of them. As they turn the corner, they come across a room with a winding rocky staircase. The staircase is well made, smoothed out, and 5 feet wide, allowing ease of use. The staircase, winds down upon itself at a gentle incline, roughly 20 feet deep from top to bottom. At the bottom, there is a circle, 10 feet in diameter.