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Hon, still under the belief he could appeal to the greed and routine of the gnoll gatekeepers, figures he might be able to pay the toll. ”Please stay here out of sight. Their response to me should indicate whether negotiations are possible or hostility to an easy and lonely mark. Boog-Boog please stay silent. Guys, if you trust Boog-Boog enough, send him out if things appear to go nowhere. Personally I’d like to avoid Boog-Boog looking like a hostage. Reveal our hand one card at a time.” Hon moves stealthily towards the gnolls, not hiding but casual approach, silently until seen. Upon observation and the gnolls’ guard is up, Hon opens the money purse in his hands to pull out a silver piece while pointing to the bridge and darkness beyond.
Hon continues to approach the gnolls, trying common and undercommon to negotiate the toll fare. He is trying hard to understand the barks, growls and yips, wondering if he would be successful or just bait.
As Hon steps away Kib calls out "Hey Hon, if you don't come back, can I get the Owl's Hideout?"
"I should let Luilfr use you as a pillow for that one."
Joan is not amused by the little sorcerer's comment.
A toothpick would be more like it. Just train Luilfr to leave all the expensive stuff behind first.
"He is a good bit smarter than other wolves I met. At least he hasn't caused us as many problems as some of us."
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Hon stops short, about 20' away. A forced casual effort to remove his backpack to prop against his left leg. Just a precaution to distract at least one while I draw my hammer. Friendly thoughts=friendly smile. First step in negiotations always the most dangerous. A smile on his face, his lower arms occasionally brushing up against the shaft of the hammer hanging from his belt, just to assure himself it is still there.
Feet shuffling a bit for the best purchase, Hon makes no further move unless gnolls display hostilities first.
The party approaches the gnolls playing a game involving dice and cards. There are two cages that counterbalance each other with gates at the front and rear of them.
There seems to be two other doors into the side of the tunnel, one on the left, and a recessed door on the right. Although the dwarves have been fairly loud, at one hundred feet the gnolls are still intent on their game.
The gnolls quickly stand up from their game as Hon gets to forty feet. They have crude longspears and hide armor. The larger one speaks up in common: "You pay toll?"
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Stopping to shed his backpack, Hon gives his coin pouch a little shake, enough to make an audible jingle. Pointing with the jingling coins first to himself than beyond the tollbridge "Name is Hon. Just passing through. How much? What is on other side of toll?"
Hon does not make any overt actions besides placing his off hand upon the leaning backpack. focusing on the speaking gnoll, he resists the urge to turn around to eyeball his peers. Hope they are far enough not to louse this up and close enough to pull my ass out of the fire should this go bad.
"If you want to go to the other side, get everyone in the cage and pull the lever. The 'machine' will tell you how much to pay. This leads to the other side of the mountain. We call it through the mountain, the easy way."
The gnoll says the word machine with disdain and suspicion.
As Hon looks at the cage, he sees a seal on the wall with a pointed white wizard hat and the words: 'White Wizard Construction, magic working for you so you don't have to'.
Hon sees four coins slots for platinum, gold, copper and silver in the side of each cage and notices the scale will assess a value in gold pieces depending on weight.
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Raising his eyebrows, carrying the pack loosely on his shield arm, with the same disdain and suspicion he nods towards the machine as he passes the gnolls. Probably a bit towards the gnolls as well. Why are they here? A quick glance at each of the rooms on either side. [i]Bait, here fishy fishy.[/] The tossing his pack onto the lift, he waits a moment for a "response". Then he steps on himself. Waits another moment.
Then Hon is lost in thought, examining the machine.
*edit* The numbers are middling, looks like he is not so focused today.
One of the gnolls heads to the door to the right, while another gnoll follows Hon to help him with the device. His common is quite passable.
"You can pull the lever. When the correct toll is put into the slots, the door will open to the next device and you can move out. The device works both ways. Pito needs to get you clearance--we can't just let anyone through."
The two gnolls at the table move to look curiously at the rest of the group. It is obvious they have never seen a dwarf.
Hon looks for a way to bypass the mechanism unsuccessfully. He notes the locking mechanisms in the middle of the cages are tied to the coin machine.
Joan waits patiently for things to go south, as they have so far for this group.
Poor Liulfr, has no idea what he's getting into.
Seeing that Hn has waved them forward, Kragg moves slowly but resolutely toward Hon. He keeps his mouth shut as he does not want to 'help' the negotiations that Hon is doing.
Joan shrugs, and follows Kragg, motioning for Luilfr to follow closely. The pair keep their eyes peeled for trouble.
The wolf seems too interested in all the strange sites and smells to pay much attention.
The gnoll hanging out by the door on the right is obviously Pito who bangs on the door to the right with a one handed war hammer with a spike on the back and yells in a guttural language.
The gnoll by Hon shrugs his shoulders, "We really do all the work here."
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[Common]"Come forward, that gnoll there is getting permission from the boss man to clear us to pass the toll gate. It is gonna cost us some gold but faster than going around."
Turning to the nearby gnoll, "You speak common well. Congrats. I guess you don't get many of our kind passing through. How much does it usually cost? Hon leans the pack againtst his leg, hold his coin pouch in off hand. He starts pulling out and counting the coins slow and steady. This is about the time when words fail me...(mental sigh)
Joan goes tense. She doesn't understand what the gnoll just said, but she recognizes the language.
"S+*$, that was giant."
Nar steps forward to get weighed "Giant, eh? Well now its getting interesting!"
The crash of feet is heard and a large helmeted head actually gazes out above the door. A deep voice responds in the same guttural tongue:
It was hard to make out in the shadows of the alcove of the door to the right, but now you see that the area above the door has been crudely excavated to make an impromptu window that begins eight feet off the ground and extends up another eight feet.
Kragg prepares himself to be weighed when Joan a mentions that they are speaking giant. Not real surprised by this small turn of events, Kragg maintains his position and waits to be allowed to cross. When the large helmeted head appears through the window, Kragg waits for the translation while resisting the urge to sills and thumb his urgrosh.
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As an aside to the gnoll beside Hon, [common]"Excuse me. I don't understand. Do you always separate travelers from their possessions as they pay? Not sure what taking away our gear now will do unless you are trying to lighten the load prior to pay. Saving us a few pieces of gold but robbing yourself? Just an observation."
Scratching his beard, "How about we keep the pointy stuff out of sight while we pay, in case Gundar the grumpy giant decides to peek, you can go back to playing cards. Put a little extra gold in your pocket, to speed things up. Eh It may make no difference, not sure we can afford the crossing to begin with. We might have to backtrack around the whole mountain after all."
From the alcove the helmeted head shouts in a deep voice:
"What is your business coming through this way? Step forward and be recognized. Who do you work for, and where do you come from?"
The gnolls look scared and tell Hon:
"Answer his questions, and we can get you all through here without any problems."
The somewhat shorter human ranger takes his hammer out of a finely make wooden box. It gleams with a bright light, and he manages to keep it at his side.
"The hammer wants to smash giants. Unlike the axe, it seems a little more capable of backing down from a fight."
"Bloody good for the damn hammer."
The appearance of the giant has made Joan very, twitchy. The sentence is more of a snarl than speech.
In Dwarven,
Keep the hammer out, we may need it soon than we think if we can't get a way across figured out. Besides with the giant watching who knows what he can do from behind that window. Keep an eye out for other doors or hidden areas. Ther might be more giants about.
Kragg still follows Hon's lead but places both hands on the urgrosh and leans on it trying to make it look as if he is bored. Instead he just wants to make sure the urgrosh is free and ready with both hands on it if necessary. Hopefully this isn't seen as hostile as Kragg usually has it out to use the piercing end as a staff if needed.
Kib shuffles forward with the others, keeping towards the back and hidden. However once the giant reveals himself, he grits his teeth and puts his hands on his waist, near his wands. Surreptitiously, he pulls out his wands of fireball and enlarge person.
Stealth:
Ready for trouble, he waits to see how things will pan out.
Magnum has a hammer out shedding some light held at his side.
Two gnolls point towards Kib and speak in gnoll,
From inside the alcove, Hon's eyes pick out the giant as he puts a horn to his lips and blows. The deep sound of the horn seems to reverberate through the cave.
The gnolls seem surprised to hear the horn and draw weapons too.
From down the far end of the tunnel, Boog-Boog yells in gnoll:
Initiative
Kragg (cold)
Khazad
Kib
Hon
Nar
Gallak
Magnum
Joan
Big Mug
Enemy 1
Enemy 2
Enemy 3
Nar looks around, "Not sure what is going on, but it can't be good."
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Free action?
[common] "Ah crap." Turning his head just a bit to keep the gnoll in sight,"All we wanted was to cross. Hey, how about you stay out of this fight, we finish off Gundar the HornBlower and you can have this bridge all to yourself? You seem like a smart and reasonable gnoll, I'd hate to kill ya." I so want a piece of this toll-bridge action. This is a money maker.
"Never. Trust. A. Bloody. GIANT!"
Joan goes for her bow.
Initiative Round 1
Kib 25<<<<<
Magnum 21<<<<
Nar 18<<<<
Gnolls 15
Kragg 11
Joan 13
Khazad 13
Kragg 11
Hon 11
Enemy (A) 7
Big Mug 7
Gallak 6
Giant 2
"Do we get him?"
The gnolls wait to see how things develop, and Magnum is waiting for Kragg.
Not knowing what is being said, Kragg still understand weapons being drawn. Hollering at the gnoll's in common, Stay out of this or wind up dead,. Kragg hopes they listen. Turning to Joan, Put one between the giants eyes. Bring him down. To the rest, Be ready.
Kragg then stands 10 feet in front of Joan to provide her some protection against anything that may approach her and readies an attack on any enemy that may come at her.
Joan pulls out her bow and draws. Sending two arrows down range.
One flies true the other splinters against the wall.
"Heel, Liulfr."
The white wolf stays by his master, but eyes the gnolls and growls.
Nar calls down the power of his god, " let me help you guys get this giant"
he casts bless
A deep hum starts in Gallak's throat as he fingers the haft of the massive axe.
Nar casts bless, and Joan's arrows speed toward the giant in the shadows of the alcove. Even with a blessing, it hits the massive flatfooted creature, but does not penetrate the massive hide of the giant. He bellows in rage.
The gnolls are surprised at the opposition. One speaks in gnoll,
The gnolls make no move to intervene besides drawing their weapons which include two falchions, a ranseur, and a heavy crossbow.
The giant curses and steps back. He yells at the gnolls:
He is seen to duck down under the window over the door.
"Do I try to stun him and the gnolls with the hammer, or wait for more?"
if the gnoll's attack then go ahead and get the giant and as many as you can. Otherwise hold off.