Sigurd's eye catches a root-lined shaft that drops 10 feet down. From there, it looks like there is a tunnel that runs east-west.
Ike is feeling a bit more... enthusiastic after his brawl with the troll. It wasn't how he hoped, but it turned out to be a good ego booster! Maybe he should try that again in the future...
The sight of the big tree doesn't really catch his eyes at first, but when someone mentions that a long shaft seems to drop into a tunnel below it, Ike morphs into his kobold form and inspects the place. "You want me to check it out? Maybe it'll lead to some treasure! ...or more kobolds!"
A careful examination of the drawing of the tree found in the spider's den makes Diceros think that it isn't the same place.
Arlen looks at the craggy old tree with great interest. "That thing looks almost as old as me!!!" She cackles gleefully. "Who wants to go in first?"
"Go on then, lad," Brokk'r says to Ike. "Looks like we're going down. Though if we find those mites, I don't suppose they'll be terribly excited ta see me first... or you lookin' like that."
Rai will tie a knotted rope around the tree and secure it with an iron spike tether and lower it into the whole.
Nodding, Ike descends into the hole under the tree, looking around with his nightvision as he investigates the hole, and following the tunnel until he comes to some kind of fork in the tunnel.
Descending the tunnel isn't an issue for the oozey kobold. The tunnel branches west or east into the darkness. Ike's kobold darkvision detects room openings in either direction.
As Ike descends into the hole, Arlen taps him affectionately on the shoulder. "Here you go, dearie. In case you need it for anything."
Ike nods, thanking Arlen for her support before clambering down and looking both ways. "It's dark down here... the tunnel seems to go both ways. I'll start to the west, I think, than come back and check the east." Ike called back up, before venturing further to the west and trying to keep his eyes peeled for anything unusual.
Ike carefully edges down the corridor, looking ahead with his koboldish ability to see in the dark.
Suddenly he hears a screech! "Kobold! No no no no! Go away!"
Something gets thrown at him! Ike catches a glimpse of a shiny metal thing that shoots over his shoulder.
Two mites are in the room ahead of you! One jumps down a hole that leads deeper into the tree root system.
Ike frezzes just in time for the metal... thing to go right past his shoulder! "MITES!" Ike called back through the tunnel, before turning back and raising his claws. "Hold it! I'm not here to fight! The kobolds don't want to fight anymore! Here to make friends with mites!"
"Kobold! Liars! And bad! Very bad!"
The tiny creature approaches Ike and stabs with his tiny dagger. He misses badly.
As the others start to make their ways down the shaft, they very quickly realize it is pitch black and extremely tight quarters.
Ike's body immediately retracts inward at the jab from the little mite, forming a hole where the knife SHOULD have gone, but completely missed. Truth be told, though, this whole affair frustrated Ike. "WHY!? Why does everyone in this stupid place always resort to fighting!? Why can't anyone talk before they start trying to kill each other!?!?!"
Ike's wings remold themselves into long, slender hands, before snapping forward and aiming to seize the mite in their grasp! "No more fighting! You go in time out! NOW!"
Ike grab's onto the tiny little creature and holds him tight. He has very little chance of escaping until Ike releases him, but the fey keeps struggling.
Brokk'r scrambles down the tunnel after his friends, ready for a fight.
Arlen looks at the rope and realizes she has a very poor chance of climbing down it. She starts cackling while everyone is moving down then cackles as she tries to climb down the rope.
The party gets down the rooted shaft without incident, and the light from Sigurd illuminates the tunnel. Everyone needs to bend over, nearly in two, to get through the tunnel. Thankfully, once you get out of the tunnel and into the room where Ike holds the struggling mite, you can mostly stand, though remain slightly crouched to avoid hitting your heads.
The mite is struggling and struggling, but can't break Ike's oozey grasp. This particular mite seems to speak a rudimentary common.
"Let go! Let go! We kill you all, longlegs! And you three times, weird kobold!"
Rai assists with Sigurd saying honest we just want to talk in Sylvan.
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As soon as Arlen gets into that section of the game, all grimy and dirty, she starts putting fortune on her teammates and chuckling as quietly as she can to herself in the background. She pulls out a book and pretends to be reading jokes to cover up the weird cackling.
"Keep talkin', lad," Brokk'r advises. "Don't give 'em a chance ta get spooked; Tell 'em what ye got ta say."
"Fine! Fine! Let me go, let me go and we can talk." the mite croaks in high pitched common.
Ike wrestles with the mite, keeping him in line until the group gets there. He lets the others speak to him before standing up and nodding, retracting his wing hands and folding them over his chest, before going to inspect the hole the other one jumped down, peering into the dark with his night vision.
As Ike sets the mite down, quick as a grasshopper, he springs over to the hole going into the ground and disappears. "You will all die now!"
Ike goes over to peer into the hole. It is a vertical shaft again, lined with roots, and 20 feet long. It empties in a larger room, but you can't make out any details of it.
With the mite fled, the rest of you have time to look around in this room. Three crude, wooden workbenches occupy the center of this room, their tops strewn with various tiny tools, metal and wooden hardware, and blocks of wood. It looks like a workshop of some type.
There is a strange contraption in one corner, with a small pile of caltrops next to it. It looks like the contraption is meant to throw the caltrops-- probably what missed Ike when he first entered.
Rai will curse at the mite jumping down the hole and mix a reduce person extract and have it ready to drink since it will only last 30 minutes.
the problem with trust Ike is then your enemy is now more prepared. If we go in here further then we are enemies.
Arlen keeps reading her book and laughing. "AHAHAHAHA! This is SO FUNNY!!! HEEE HEEE HEE!"
"Well, that didn't go well." The dwarf frowns. "Diceros, weren't you the one ta make friendly with the one them kobolds had locked up? Maybe he'd listen to ye if ye can find 'im."
Brokk'r takes a look down the hole.
"But seein' as they're all riled up, I'm not wantin' ta send ye down there alone... We could always just beat some sense into 'em."
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"Please, I ask that you all let me try to talk to them first!"
After waiting for Arlen's fortune to take effect, and casting Guidance on himself to help his diplomacy, Diceros climbs down the 20 foot drop to the next room.
As he nears the bottom, Diceros calls out in Sylvan:
[edited based on GMs notes]
All of you can fit through the vertical shaft (do 2 climb checks to descend; it is not a high DC but you still have a chance to slip up).
Brokk'r pulls Ike aside as the others descend. "Hold on a minute, lad. Seein' you and me is just gonna make 'em nervous and Diceros wants ta be diplomatic. So unless yer wantin' ta change forms again—not sure how often ye can do that—why don't ye wait up here with me, eh?"
Then, looking back the way they came, he adds, "Also, wasn't there another tunnel? They probably connect somewhere deeper. Wouldn't want to get flanked."
Arlen steps about and laughs, slowing buffing the entire party with Fortune.
Give me a party order for descending the shaft... and then each player should make 4 climb checks.
You can lower a rope if you want; but someone has to explicitly say it AND have the rope in their inventory. The rope used previously is still hanging from the first shaft.
"Here," Brokk'r says, tossing his rope to Rai. "Ye can use this ta help ye get down."
Rai knots the rope tossed him and ties it to the rope leading out and then lowers it down the next shaft.
Ike pauses as Brokk'r put a hand on his shoulder. Perhaps... perhaps he was right. They didn't seem to like kobolds... and he wasn't sure he could manage another change at the moment... and it seemed like Diceros was willing to play the diplomacy card. He would leave it to them.
"You're right... maybe we should go back and check the other end of the tunnel?" He nodded, helping to hold the rope so the others could climb down.
Arlen creeps slowly down the rope in the middle of the group while cackling.