As the doors fly open, sending the skeleton flying, you find yourselves in the building across the water that you spied earlier. Splintered framing in the ceiling and floor hint that thin wooden walls once divided this stone building’s interior. With those walls demolished, only a single, large chamber remains. Rubble, swamp vegetation, and mud pile in heaps like foul nests, while a larger stack of rubble, sticks, and bones looks almost, but not quite, like a throne. A flattened mound of sand with a few dozen bits of wood and stone stuck into it covers the floor before the throne.
Beside the throne is standing a very burly gremlin wielding a trident and seemingly talking to a gigantic ten-legged sand-coloured spider of some kind. He is flanked by two rather meek-looking gremlins as well. As you burst in he looks up and addresses you:
"You! Heroes! Why you come here before I raid your town? You know very well: first I raid, then you come." He punctuates his words by stabbing in the ground with the trident.
Whether you want to talk or fight you won initiative here so you can all take your actions as you please.
Henry scratched the back of his head with his shield and looked at his companions. Unsure of what was going on, he looked back at the burly gremlin. "Sorry, I'm not following. What raid on our town?"
"I'm not from here, so I don't know."
Tindertwig grins at the Big Spider! Dirtbag directs the goblins attention to the Big Gremlin.
Nots as bigs. Whiches ov dem bees closers.
The goblin sticks his tongue out at the crocodile.
The crocodile seems unfazed by this behavior.
Seeing your incomprehension, the gremlin changes tacks. "No, no, is nothing. I understand you bad. But why you here?" He hurriedly uses his trident to wipe out the patterns in the sand before him.
"With whom did you agree on this schedule?" asks Eddred.
Tindertwig--and Dirtbag--step forward, puff out their chests, and answer the Big Gremlin.
Youses bees askings wats wees doos?
The Big Gremlin tries to puff himself up. "Oh, is standard. First we raid town, steal shinies, kidnap maidens. Then heroes come to get them back. But I would not do that, no no. And you goblin, what you doing with the longshanks?
Tindertwig stares hard at the Big Gremlin. The goblin then winks.
Mees bees heroes! Wees bees kick'n yer asses outs ov heres fer us ta take over!
The goblin then gives a confident thumbs up to the group....
Big Gremlin's lower lip starts to tremble a bit but he manages to hold himself together. "Me have better idea. You strong heroes, you go down kill mushroom-eyed people that be mean to us. They bully us little folk but you their size. You kill their king, come back, me give you big shinies, OK?"
The dwarf lowers her sword. "Tell us more about these people."
As he thinks he has your ear, the little blue man relaxes somewhat and words come cascading out of his mouth, falling over each other in eagerness:
"Yes, big mushroom-eyed meanies come up from below many nights ago, kill many gremlins and force us to move out into this nasty light. Now they occupy our home. Their king is magic priest mushroom-eyed guy that can hurt your head just by looking at you. You go kill them, give us back our home. We give you big pile of shiny gems, never bother you again, right?"
Hilde frowns in thought. She doesn't immediately answer the gremlin king, but addresses the rest of the party. "This is important. This is a break in the case." Then she turns her attention back to the gremlin. "How many nights ago did they start attacking your people? When you were forced up here, was the light--" She points up towards the Gauntlight. "--glowing at night? Did the meanies tell you anything about why they were fighting you?"
Tindertwig--and Dirtbag--huddle with the group to discuss this extremely important break in the investigation, exploration, fieldtriparation.
Every few seconds; both the goblin and the crocodile turn to look at the waiting gremlins.
Wees bees tink'n dat wees just boots everyones frum da spooky Light House.
Dirtbag makes a guttural sound.
Trues! Wees ken charges da rents!
Henry looks back and forth from his companions to the gremlins. He was obviously confused. "Wait, this place has a basement?"
The Big Gremlin looks suddenly wistful. "Yes, many nights ago they chased us up here, where creepy, nasty light shine every night. We not know why. Big meanies no need reason."
He breaks out into an unattractive smile. "But now you heroes bring justice for gremlins. And maybe shiny gift for Boss Skraung, heh? Maybe he can be helpful?" He actually holds out a hand and beckons.
Hilde pointedly looks away from the proffered hand. "Where is the access to the lower level?"
Both the goblin and the crocodile shake their heads.
Disappointed, he withdraws his hand. "You will probably just be eaten anyway, like those longshanks who went to see the dragon. The stairs down are behind the middle door to the north, between the creepy light and the creepy lights." He chuckles at his own lame joke.
As far as Dirtbag can tell, he is telling the truth.
The dwarf starts. "I'm sorry? What was that about a dragon?"
The gremlin shrugs. "Bunch of longshanks came by a week ago. Took a boat to the dragon's cave. Then the dragon came back. Never saw them again. Serves them right."
Tindertwig stares hard at the Big Gremlin.
Wees bees need'n ta clear dis wholes floor first. Den wees ken come back and git directions ta yer Big Meanies.
The goblin then takes a second look.
Dere bees un dragon?
He looks to Dirtbag.
Wees may needs un raise fer dis s+@+!
The crocodile nods in agreement.
"Oh, he's probably talking about the drake Mister Eddred was talking about that ate the half a frog that was missing. Not a dragon, but close to it, right?" Henry looked to Eddred for confirmation.
"That does seem likely," agrees Eddred. "To the uninitiated, a drake would appear like a dragon. No confusing them once you've seen both, however."
The gremlin's eyes narrow as he meets Tindertwig's stare. "I knew it. You just want loot. You not dare fight mushroom-eyes. Good. Now I kill you." He screeches a signal to attack to the big spider and the other gremlins scramble into action.
Tindertwig looks to Dirtbag.
Did mees do dat?
Unfortunately this time the Big Gremlin is quicker than you. He ducks behind his mud throne, takes out a blowgun and fires a dart at Hilde, which misses, while the large spider-thing flails wildly at Henry, attacking three times with reach. Out of sheer luck it manages to land a blow for 7 points of damage.
The outer gremlins are slower on the uptake so you can all act before them.
You are all up.
Hilde starts as the blowgun dart goes by her ear, then slips into the room and goes after one of the mites.
Henry goes straight for Boss Gremlin with his sword, not taking kindly to the dart ricocheting off of his shield and into his flesh. If he can, he'll move into a position where he can set up a flank with someone on their turn. Once adjacent, he'll swing.
After, he'll raise his shield again, wary of this strong gremlin.
Tindertwig smiles at the gremlins as the goblin strides across the room to engage the gremlin there.
The Ranger then orders Dirtbag to come along and bite the spider.
The Goblin then scuttles closer to the gremlin.
How you doing!
Dirtbag takes a large chunk out of the spider before Henry strikes it down and moves to engage the Big gremlin. Hilde and Tindertwig each wounds on of the lesser gremlins.
Eddred is up, then the gremlins.
Eddred's flask of acid shatters against the throne, splashing the big gremlin.
The two remaining gremlins emit a blood-curdling howl and with a manic rage throw themselves at Hilde and Tindertwig. They miss Hilde, but Tindertwig is stabbed in the midriff for 4 points of damage, after which the gremlin moves to flank Henry.
The big gremlin drops his blowgun and resorts to his trident, swinging wildly at Henry and connecting once, stabbing him twice for 9 and 4 points of damage, respectively. In the process he bumps into the throne, which shakes and shudders dangerously.
You are all up.
Hilde dodges the gremlin's attack and ripostes, lashing out with her shortsword.
Henry continues to not take kindly to being struck today. He grits his teeth and pushes through the pain, however. Continuing to hide behind his trusty shield, he slices twice at the big bad Boss.
Tindertwig frowns at the retreating gremlin!
The goblin then frowns at his dogslicer!
The ranger then orders Dirtbag into a Flank with the Chief.
Tindertwig strides easily up to the Chief. He smiles.
The goblins smiles.
Dat bees betters!
Henry brings down the chief, who is weakened from the acid splash, with two mighty blows and Hilde and Tindertwig finish off the remaining gremlins. All is suddenly quiet.
There are no visible exits in this room other that the doors you entered by.
Henry scoffs and checks his shield even as blood starts dyeing his armor. "Man, theese guys were tough little bastards, huh? I'm gunna have to spend some time fixing up my stuff when we get back to town. Oh, Miss Hilde, could you do something about my bleeding, please and thank you?"
Tindertwig and Dirtbag kick the Big gremlin, as they both walk by to sit on the throne.
Nows wees bees da kings!
The throne shudders and creaks as Tindertwig sits down on it, and a piece falls off at the back, but it holds. It seems that you actually are da kings.
There doesn't seem to be anything of value here apart from the gremlin's weapons and even these are of indifferent quality.
What do you want to do next? There is some exploring left to do, or you could search the rooms you have already explored. Or you could try to find the way down that the gremlin boss indicated.
"I still think it's not a coincidence that the gremlins were pushed out around the same time that the Gauntlight started glowing again. First, let's do an in-depth search of this floor, though, in case we've missed anything." As she talks, the dwarf works on Henry's wounds.
By horrible unluck Hilde happens to tear up Henry's wounds even worse, causing him 6 points of damage.
Do you want to retreat or do you want to search first?
"We should search before we leave," says Eddred. "Henry, take these elixirs. They'll help with your wounds. This one's flavored with licorice root. This one... fennel. Sorry, I was out of licorice root."
Henry winced in pain as Hilde tried to patch him up. "No worries. I know you didn't do it on purpose, Miss Hilde. I appreciate you trying."
He will take the elixirs offered by Eddred with a word of thanks and tries to swallow them down as quickly as possible.
"I also think we should search. Something could come flying out at us, but we went through a lot of rooms and there's some stuff we coulda missed."