Arkady, on seeing the gem, will sheathe his longsword and cautiously approach to pick it up from the chest of the fetal humanoid. He murmurs a chant to his ancestors, and keeps a tight grip on his buckler in case yet more of the slime moulds appears.
"Very well. Let us search deeper in these caves for Khonnir Baine." Onna moves back towards the cave where the group had been blinded.
Thüm seems curious about the tiny corpses. "Halflings were sons of Torch? Companions of Khonnir Baine? Thralls of the thugs who searched after him?"
The party returns to the blindheim's cavern and then takes the narrow southern corridor, which runs south, then south-west before opening out to a kind of junction, with a damp cave abutting to the north-west. The corridor continues to the south-west, with another corridor flowing off to the south-east.
In the cave to the north-west is heaped a collection of crates, boxes, rubble, and scavenged metal. Several strange chalk drawings of twisted, spiny plants, a strange three-legged creature, and emaciated four-armed humanoids mark the walls.
Seeing signs of habitation and activity, Thüm crouches down to look for recent tracks.
"A small scraeling band makes this hollow hill home," Thüm says, waving at their tracks. Then he freezes, and points down the southeast passage with his poleaxe. "There! And gone. One watched us--now has fled to find fellows."
"Thüm Göertatroth, Aufruhrstählernvolk his tribe is correct," Ozymandias says, swiveling his head towards the passage. "A humanoid of odd coloration has fled from us. Adriennn--n-n-" he stops, buzzing for a moment. "Shall I make pursuit? I am not certain I will be able to make contact before they arrive at their destination." Ozymandias rears his one large arm back, turning towards the door.
"What? We need to follow them, they could have captured Khonnir!" Adrien starts to run down the passage, waving Ozymandias and the others along behind him. "Come on! We can't let it get away!"
Adrien and OZ chase down the corridor to the south-east, into a vast chamber, which rises nearly thirty feet overhead.
A five-foot-wide ledge runs along the western wall, sloping down to the cave floor ten feet below. Four ramshackle huts made of what appear to be strips of metal, hides, and some sort of fibrous plant matter sit in the cave, while to the south yawns a dark pit.
With the illumination of your torches, you can just about make out a strange metal wall at the far end of the cave.
Onna quickly follows Adrien and his pet metalbeast. "The wall!" she exclaims. Holding her spear, she looks at the huts, trying to see if any enemies lurk within.
Ulok keeps pace with everyone, rapier at the ready. "Wall up ahead? What is this doing here?"
Arkady holds the grip of his longsword tightly, scanning his eyes along the four huts and eventually stopping at the dark pit. "Perhaps that is the wall that Councillor Dolga made talk of? The one where Khonnir found the contraption nearby?"
"Come out, skraelings, we would have words," Thüm calls out.
A human shaped creature, a female, hairless and naked, half steps out, half manifests before you. She was difficult to see before, her skin matched to the rocks behind, so the act of movement brings her into focus. To the left and right of the party, two others of her kind - both males - also appear in the same way and move forward so that they end threatening the party from either side.
The female speaks, in rough Common: "Others come before. Now more. What you want here?"
Thüm lowers his longaxe and raises a placating hand. "Apologies for disturbing village. We look for missing man, Khonnir Baine of Torch." The old man turns to Adrian. "Skraelings could be guides, if they don't want to fight. Or after we fight."
Arkady keeps his longsword in hand, blade lowered so as not to appear threatening but by no means does he make a move to sheathe the weapon either. "Who else has come before? Can you describe them as they may be the one who we are looking for?"
The female creature responds:
"Not talk here. I am not our speaker. I am Luepel. These ..." - she nods left and right to her two comrades - "... are Brath and Yadriss. Our speaker is Sef. Half of you come with me to meet Sef. If you comply then we will parley. But big machine must stay here for now."
Arkady turns to his companions and nods. "Whichever of you is to speak with their leader, I will follow you."
"Ozzy, will you stand here as a guard? I think I ought to speak with these people. I was once in training to be a sort of ambassador... I don't know how much I can do, but I'll try and see what I can discover." He nods to Akrday, looking to the rest of the group. "Do any of you wish to accompany us?"
"Rockbrother goes? Thüm stays, to protect the frail."
"I am not one for words. I will stay." Onna replies.
Thüm nods at Onna. "Ulok Scavenger would pick through pile in cave with paintings, so Thüm thinks. Let us three take unwanted Ozzy back to search while others talk."
Tio pauses for a second, before her natural curiosity gets the better of her. "I would be interested in discovering more about these people. I will come with you, friends Adrien and Arkady." she says. Ulok also takes his time, then nods his approval.
"Good idea, Thum", he says enthusiastically. "I was hoping someone would bring that up."
Luepel leads the group on a path through the cave along to the east, which turns north into a smaller chamber, filled with metal junk covering almost every inch of ground. The precarious pile rises up in a heap-like hut to the northwest. Another female figure, much like Luepel and equally emaciated, emerges. Unlike her fellow, however, she's covered in leather strapping, holding a variety of short blades, daggers and the like.
She eyes the explorers warily.
"Another group comes." she says. "What want you?"
===
Luepel's fellows watch while the group retreats to look through the rubble in the previous cavern. Among the rubble and refuse here are several ruined bits of technological devices - nothing recognisable or even all that useful can be found here, but the presence of strange tangles of wires and unusually crafted fragments confirms the hope that more ancient technology can be found deeper in the caves.
Thüm picks up an iridescent metal fragment and smiles. "A bauble to bring Göennith Göertadotter if to the Grippenwald Thüm returns. Let us look for more such trinkets--little else we have to do until our friends finish their council."
"I know the city merchants like these strange sky-metals," Onna says, sifting through the debris, her eyes flicking mechanically from one discarded gadget to the next. "What purpose do they use them for? What crafts were forged in the purple fires of Torch with these scraps?"
"Göerta Stonebreaker swung hurlbat of Numarian steel, forged in Torch. Unbreakable, and sharp enough to bite through armor plate." Thüm shakes his head in wonder and admiration. "Still it sticks in steel beast that slew her."
An exhaustive search of the rubble pile yields seven silverdisks but nothing else of value.
Onna pulls a silverdisk out of the pile, showing it to Thum. "This looks valuable. I've seen traders using these like coin." Having found an appropriate target for her search, Onna methodically overturns every fragment of the rubble pile, moving from the left side to the right. When she reaches the end, she has seven in all. "That is all of them," she announces definitively.
"Ha! Seven games will we play at Silverdisk Hall!"
Adrien walks into the hut, moving gingerly in an effort to not knock the whole heap down on top of him. "I apologize for the interrupt-... wait, did you say another group? We're here searching for another group who went missing, led by a man who called himself Khonnir Baine. He mentioned in his journals having seen a large wall made of some sort of strange metal, and I think he must have been talking about the one at the far end of the cave." Adrien breathes deeply once, trying to contain his sense of excitement. "Did you see them? We've been sent from town to try and rescue him, and find out what happened to his team. Any information you have might help us get him back to town safely."
Ozymandias shifts through piles of rubble, a thin blue light emanating from his optical sensors. "I have found nothing further of interest." Ozzy's head declines slightly, a low note coming from somewhere inside his chassis. "I dislike not being able to accompany Adrien; he has a tendency t-tt-t--o get himself in trouble. I am unable to fulfill my primary directive at this distance."
Onna looks at the strange metalbeast quizzically. "What is your primary directive?" she asks suspiciously.
Arkady stands just behind and to the right of Adrien as the human speaks with the leader of this strange underground tribe, his stance relaxed but a hand noticeably near to the hilt of his longsword in case it is needed.
Sef tilts her head as she speaks. She seems wary and somewhat tired.
"First, we parley. Many groups, more than fingers on one hand, come through cave. All seek techwork. The Gathering has suffered at their hands. We are all that is left of the Gathering. The Gathering asks your help. If you help, there will be reward - techwork we have discovered. Agree this; then we speak of those who came before."
She stops, to wait on your response.
"Our help? I... yes, of course, we'll help you however we can." He gives his best attempt at a reassuring smile, looking helpfully between Arkady and the emaciated woman. "What is it you need us to do? I don't know how much we can help, but I promise you we'll do our best."
She continues to eye you warily. "All right, we sit, we talk." she says.
"I will tell you what you need, what you want, and what we need and want, so we are in trust. You ask of others: several groups come here, these last few cycles. First group was led by purple haired machine woman - one like her ..." - she points at Tio - "... she paid us to hold tunnels for her. Stop others entering. Many disks she gave us for this task, our speaker was much pleased. But Gathering was bigger then."
"Next group comes, a few cycles later. Half-men. Killed by the fire insects. Nothing for us to do but take their stuff. Left them by the river."
"Then came stronger group. Tried to rob us. Fought the Gathering at the Wall. We killed them all. Some tried to escape, but we hunted them down. One is still in cave of spikes. Another is in the river, food for our pet. But Kalx and Venza both die in fighting. Gathering is smaller, then."
"Then came man from town. Magic, machines, strong fighters. Our speaker fell." - she looks away and down, obviously upset - "many others fell. Gathering is no longer, is ... what you see. He took the disks the machine woman had given. Took most we had. Went to the Wall and took our dead machine. Went home to chant and sing of his victory."
"Next group came. We let them through. Gathering is no longer. Disks are no longer. They went through the Wall. We did not see them again."
"At last, the big man from town returned. Again, we let him pass. The Gathering could not withstand him. The Gathering's ghost ... well. He also went beyond the Wall. We have not seen him again either. Hope darkness has taken him."
She spits.
"End of story. Of what you need. What we need: there are vermin in the caves. Steal from us, bite us, make us sad. Once, the Gathering would have killed them. Not a glorious kill. Just ... pain. Kill them for us, make our lives better. Then, you go through caves and we leave alone. We still have few disks. And some machine stuff. Stuff purple haired machine woman wanted, valued. Gathering kept it from her. Do this for me, I give you that. Else ... we must fight, and die with you, for we have nothing else left for us."
She stops and awaits the response of the group (or at least, those with her in the cave) to her offer.
Bored, Thüm has been using a piece of scrap metal to scratch a picture of his own next to the other petroglyphs in the cavern. He steps back to admire his work.
"Bah. A potato with a beard. Thüm's own children would not know him." The old barbarian brightens. "But studied Thüm knows his runes!"
He painstakingly scratches T-H-U-M under his portrait. "See? Thum is skald. But this is not Thüm, this is Thum, rhymes with dumb. Must add sacred umlauts." He does, making the U into Ü. "There. Now is Thüm, rhymes with doom." He offers the sharp scrap to Onna. "Now Onna Spiritspeaker leaves sign of heroic journey."
"Vermin? We can deal with vermin, of course!" Adrien looks at Arkady, before turning back to the emaciated woman. "Err... what kind of vermin are we talking about, exactly? Giant bugs, or something less pleasant, I guess?"
Onna smiles at Thum's artistic rendering. "A potato, but a mighty-looking potato indeed," she jokes. Taking the metal fragment, she scrapes a representation of her own face into the stone. Her motions are precise and rigid, but she produces an impressive facsimile of her face on the stone. "I'm afraid I've never thought about how to spell my name in the city-tongue. Hmm," she thinks for a moment, before scribing "ONNA" in wide, symmetrical letters. Beneath it, she draws a skunk. "It would not be me if not for Ôka's face too," she says, tickling the skunk's chin on her shoulder. The little mammal closes his eyes, enjoying the attention. "Each Onna is chosen by a different spirit animal when she is reborn. Ôka is mine. In my dreams I dance with my sisters who came before me in this flesh."
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"Onna's tribesfolk are reborn? Strange ways. Neighbor's beautiful daughter could be own great-grandfather. "
"Gods take Aufruhrstählernvolk when we die. Three meadhalls have we, three gifts from three gods. Hall of Dreams, Hall of Giants, Hall of Steel. Only great heroes go to Hall of Steel. Thralls and chiefs go to hall of Giants, where thrall may be chief and chief may be thrall. Others go to Hall of Dreams. Aufruhrstählernvolk's greatest punishment is to be thrown out of tribe--meadhall doors shut for you forever, you freeze in dark, chased by giant wolves." Thüm chuckles at the image of some despicable exile fleeing from god-wolves.
"Nay, only the Onna are reborn. There are trials aplenty in the next life for the rest of the tribe. Each Onna shares this face, this flesh." Onna leans her head to the side, revealing a gash on her neck where the beautiful nanite circuitry of her flesh is marred by a jagged scar from an animal's bite. "The Onna four generations before me gained this scar from a plains-tiger. Her spirit animal was the mighty mammoth - she whispers secrets of strength and beast-wrestling to me in my sleep." She smiles. "Someday I will teach a new Onna, when she inherits this flesh. My hope is that I am wise and have much to teach when I pass into spirit."
Sef eyes Adrien. She spits again. "Little creatures. Steal and tug and tease and hurt. And eat. Sometimes even, in the darkest dark, they eat each other. Skins of toad, faces of bat, teeth like spikes. Rid us of them. This I ask of you, as I am the last Speaker of the Gathering."
"And in return, you will grant us leave to traverse your realm, as well as give us these trinkets you had saved for the purple-haired woman?" Arkady asks in his usual raspy tone as he leans forward in his crossed-leg position on the floor, still keeping a calloused hand on his longsword's scabbard.
"Indeed," says Sef.
"You will not join loved family in next world? Sad." Thüm scratches his beard as he considers the short tribeswoman. "You were adopted into family like orphan or worthy thrall?"
"My sisters are my family, and I will join them when my time comes." Onna replies. "Many of my sisters have been the brides of chieftains, but the Onna cannot bear children. I have been with the tribe since my awakening - before that, I have no memory. Before me was the Owl Onna - she passed peacefully from age, and our body lay for two moons in the sacred caves near our homeland. When I awoke, first conscious of this world, Ôka was there to greet me. When I touched him, I could see into the spirit world, and the Owl Onna taught me who I was."