Aurie looks about but sees no signs of there being prisoners or any place they could conceivably hide a medium size creature in this room. However, they could be held in another room. These things seemed ready to fight when you came down after all.
The mite speaking with Doc says, "I am not the king. King Zuuga holds court elsewhere."
Cimrôdel informs the Pathfinders, ”These are mites. A type of fey. Beyond that, I know naught. I shall try the language of the fey.”
Accordingly, Cimrôdel tries Sylvan, ”do you speak this language?”
Doc translates. "They say their leader, King Zuuga, holds court elsewhere."
Cimrôdel scratches the tip of his ear. "A king you say? I had no expectations of meeting a king today. I am not hardly dressed for it." He considers a bit before considering, "Do you think they have an entire court as well? With dukes, and vassals, and courtiers?"
Could these be the abductors? Aurie thinks
Spiders are quite effective at capturing prey but... we are on an installation that is at quite a distance from the disappearances, and these mites dont seem to be physically impressive, so they would likely struggle against normal sized foes. An inability to speak out language to me also implies that they are not familiar with our culture, which means they may have, if they were to prey in the slum areas, a hard time distinguishing prey from hardened criminals, like, there are *beggars* against whom I would be very hard pressed in a fight, even individually and if I see them coming, in the slums.
And giant spiders would draw notice. Heck, I wonder if I can setup a profitable silk business. Heck, if I was more criminally inclined... Use them to raise those dream spiders instead of giant ones and get filthy rich from selling shiver.
Aurie thinks and considers various options. Some of very dubious morality.
I do moonlight as a professional dancer, if you want to use this as our in with them go ahead. Aurie informs the party in common.
"If they want us gone, I'm not sure meeting their king is an option they'll give us, anyway. No harm in asking, though, I guess."
Saria grips her spear tightly as she eyes the various mites and their mounts cautiously, pondering their options if things turn violent.
I guess falling back up the stairs is the better option? Seems the best way to deal with their numbers.
Descended from even smaller fey, the mites are among the most pitiful and craven dwellers of the dark. Hideously ugly, even goblins have been known to mock mites for their homely appearances. Mites, once closer to the strange realm of the fey, have grown larger and stockier after countless generations spent on the Material Plane. Yet still, their stature places them at the bottom of the pile in the dangerous caverns in which they live. Their traditional enemies are dwarves and gnomes, particularly the svirfneblin of the deep underground caves. The one thing that gives them a significant edge over an enemy in a fight is their natural ability to empathize with normally mindless vermin—mites are particularly fond of spiders, centipedes, and cave fishers, and a mite colony usually has a few of these far more dangerous monsters on hand to defend the group.
Although they have lost the supernatural ability to tinker with magic items, luck, or mechanical objects possessed by their more sinister and dangerous gremlin kin, mites retain the ability to perform minor magical tricks with prestidigitation, and often use these tricks to annoy their enemies. When faced with dangerous foes, a mite uses its doom ability to hex a foe—a mite’s eyes bulge hideously open when it uses this spell-like ability.
They had DR 2/cold iron, are sensitive to light, have excellent darkvision, and though descended from gremlins they have lost many of their abilities and the fey language adapting to the underdark and the languages there.
"King that way," he points through the wall to the north-west. "He likes presents, particularly food." The mite says.
Shathee looks around slightly nervously while the conversation continues. Being unsure if the pleasantries will turn more aggressive at any point, and unsure what or why these creatures are here, he lightly fingers his blade and makes sure the air currents are moving around him in the event that arrows begin flying in his direction.
"He says the king is in there," Doc translates, nodding with his head in the direction the mite indicated. "He says the king likes presents, especially food. I'll ask if he will allow us to see him."
Doc bows hesitantly to the mite. "volt ir aun deyn mitarbeter, ah, lozn aundz tsu geyn dort? mi r vel n derna kh avekgeyn."
"Does anyone have food to offer to the 'king'?"
Doc scratches his head behind the lamp. "I could offer him a tug of whiskey," he says dubiously. "I don't know what that'd do to a mite's metabolism, though. He might suspect we're tryin' to poison him."
The mite responds to Doc.
The mite leads you back up the steps into the triangular room. He then walks to a section of the west wall and you notice a small loose section in the wall which you missed the first time due to the teleportation trap fiasco. He pulls the section away revealing a three foot high tunnel.
"He says he will take us to the king, but we have to crawl." Doc translates to everyone.
”Can I not go first or last?”
I can go last or first.
Shathee glances in his pouch and adds, "I've just got a days worth of hardtack. I don't know that will count as food the king would enjoy. Before we meet him, should we have a bit more to offer?"
"He may love it."
Just claim that is strong dwarfen super tack that you cunningly stole.
Aurie remarks with a smirk
Doc, Saria, Shathee, Cimrodel, Aurie perhaps?
Doc semi-reluctantly leads the group into the tunnel towards the mite king. "I hope this ain't an ambush," he mutters.
"Same here." Saria whispers back, right behind Doc. "If we end up fighting these things, I definitely would have prefered to do so back there, not surrounded by even more of them. Nothing we can do about it now, though, besides trying to stay on their good side."
"Indeed, let's hope."
Everyone scurries through the tunnel, the mite walking easily in front. At the end of the short tunnel he holds up his hand for you to stop. He steps into a room that appears to have been carved from the rock and is now covered in heavy spiderwebs. The mite speaks to the ceiling in undercommon.
Then he waves you forward. After entering the room he turns left and heads down a flight of stairs. This stairwell opens into a large room. there are pillars that run down the center of it likely both decoration and load bearing. To your left you see a silver statue standing in an alcove at the end of the room. The mite, however, leads you to the right and down the length of the room. At the far end there is another alcove in which there is what appears to be a large upside down skull and sitting on top of it is another mite with a big head even for mites. Upon his head is what looks like a bracer. Gesturing to the big-headed creature your guide says.
The mite then explains to the king that you requested to bring him food.
Doc translates for the group, acting as interpreter to whoever wants to talk to the king.
"He says the red dot stayed put, and that we wanted to bring a gift to the king, who is called King Zuuga. Now he's saying we have brought him food."
Red Dot? Maybe a larger spider, dont black widows have red dots? Hmm, something about the term black widow makes me want to acrobatically jump and do certain heroic poses. Aurie muses
Cimrôdel will cast detect magic and give the room a once over, paying special attention to the bracer.
+2 to ID magic item properties
The bracer on the King’s head is indeed magic.
Bracers of Armor +2, it would need its twin to work.
King Zuuga looks at the group as Aurie and Doc discuss something in a tongue he knows nothing about and Cimrodel stares at him like he has an appendage growing out of his forehead. Finally, the King says,
"You give me food now. Then bring back clicky legs."
Doc translates. "He says to give him the food now, then to bring back clicky legs." He cocks his head to the side. "vos zenen klikki legs?" he asks.
Seeing no one else make a move to pull out food, he pulls out the hard tack from his pack and passes it to Doc. "King Zuuga, this is saffron-infused Bread of the Sun, cooked under the divine sun of of Qadira," he says in common, hoping Doc can translate enough to pass it off. "Drink?" he asks the others.
Saria ponders for a bit at Shathee's question. "Actually... I might have something. If they let me cast and bring a cup or container of some kind."
She nods to Doc, and turns to the mite king, hoping her worda can reinforce Shathee's own about the food he is offering and get them to accept her casting.
"While it won't certainly be as exquisite as the food my companion is offering, I can offer some magical drink to accompany it, if you'd let me use a bit of magic and have a cup for it. Besides its taste, the drink will even bolster your senses for a bit."
Saria touches the weathered wayfinder at her waist for a bit as she focuses on it, and after a low chant and some magical gestures, brings her hand to her waterskin. She takes a gulp of the transmuted liquid inside, to show it is safe to drink, and pours the rest of the contents on whatever container the mites bring forth.
Doc translates as Shathee and Saria speak, making it clear that he is conveying what they are saying much more floridly than he.
Recognizing the spell that Saria is casting, Doc is all in. He holds out his silver tankard for her to pour the wine, and he takes a drink after she does before holding it out for the king to take a swig. He doesn't let go of the tankard, signaling that only the liquid is a gift.
King Zuuga takes the offered tack, holds it up to look at it and then begins to ravenously eat it. When Doc offers the wine in a silver tankard but does not relinquish the tankard, Zuuga picks up his own wooden cup and dips some out. In between bites he answers Doc.
Doc translates. "He says 'Clicky legs' is his pet. Apparently he was keeping the king's 'sleeping crown' before he left, and now the king does not sleep well without it. He likes the 'sunny bread' and magic drink." He frowns. "I suppose based on what he said before, he wants us to find Clicky legs and bring the creature back. Probably with the 'sleeping crown'."
Cimrôdel’s left eyebrow raises. ”The King’s ‘sleeping’ crown you say? I don’t suppose talking him out of his ‘waking’ crown for comparison sake is within the realm of possibility?”
Can you ask him how many legs clicky legs has? Would help us in figuring out what it is Aurie offers