Among the dead bodies strewn about, the brothers and Penka find a singular agate (worth 55gp) on one of the mold-ridden bodies. The bodies, seemingly, have already been thoroughly looted by somebody. As you
To the northwest of you, a collection of crates, boxes, rubble, and scavenged metal lies heaped in the northwest section of this damp cave. Several strange chalk drawings of twisted, spiny plants, a strange three-legged creature, and emaciated four-armed humanoids mark the walls. You recognize this as a, presumably functional version of, the creature you dealt with to the sounds of Val's screams. Standing in front of you, however, is a smooth-skinned, hairless female humanoid has penetrating eyes and skin that shifts and changes to mimic his surroundings. But, however, the skin seems to be not working as well as it should, as you all spot her, with the exception of Grezzag, who sees nothing directly in front of him. She looks visibly nervous as she sees your eyes directly on her.
What will the 5 of you who can see her do, knowing there's someone standing in front of you?
Zelvin watches the person. He slowly shows her his revolver and then puts it in his holster. Then showing his empty hands, he points at her with a questioning expression. "You speak Common?" he asks her under his breath.
The android awaits the humanoid's response to Zelvin. He unloads and stows his crossbow.
The images of the robot catches Grezzag's eye and he starts to poke about through the rubble and metal.
He stops and looks back when the others start to talk, although he doesn't put his weapon away until he knows there's no threat.
Penka freezes up, tongue tied, when confronted with the strange woman. She does eventually manage to force out an utterance.
"Hello..."
-2 int, "can attempt all Knowledge checks untrained"
Khoran waits at the back of the party, as the youngsters try to parley with the strange woman. He smiles to himself, and leaves them to it, as it seems a good learning opportunity. He readies himself to hex the woman if things turn hostile...
Neither can Grezzag find anything, nor does Khoran's familiar know what the weird creatures painted on the wall are.
The hairless woman in front of you, quite loudly in fact, barks at you in Undercommon, while gripping her shortsword and ready to slash at you:
"Who are you, and why are you here?!"
Zelvin blinks in surprise, and responds in the same harsh, gutteral language. His manner as he talks is easy and casual.
As soon as he finishes speaking to the hairless woman he quietly translates what he just said into Common for the benefit of his friends. "I told her we're looking for Mr. Khonnir and what he looks like, and said we don't mean her no harm. I asked if she's seen him and can help us."
Since she doesn't know what to expect, Penka asks Zelvin.
"What do you think? Will she help us?"
Grezzag watches the woman warily as she brandishes her sword, keeping his grip tight on his axe.
The familiar, and anyone who surpasses a CR 11 Knowledge Local Check, knows that these are skulks. Humanoid creatures that can blend into their environment by shifting the hue of their skin to mimic their surroudnings.
The skulk in front of you beckons to follow through the crack in the cave system, mentioning something in Undercommon, her skin finally ceasing shifting, allowing each and every one of you to see her.
"Come. Avoid the mold the other way"
Will you follow her through the crack?
Zelvin turns to the others and translates into Common. "She says to follow her through the crack to avoid more molds the other way. Reckon it's safe?"
"Could be a trap." Grezzag mutters. "But I reckon we should risk it, as long as we keep our guard up."
Penka stares back at Zelvin in surprise. "You're the only one who can talk to her and you're asking us?"
"Not to sure I'd call anything down here as safe..." mutters Khoran, and then he pipes up from the back "You asked about seeing Khonnir, and if she could help us. Has she given you any answers or told you why we want to go through this crack? Not just to avoid the molds, but what's on the other side of the crack?"
Zelvin shrugs. "I ain't the best at readin' people," he explains to Penka, and to Khoran he says: "Nope, no details. You want me to go after her and ask her to come back? I reckon we've got to either follow or wait. I'm inclined to follow, long as I don't have to go alone." He grins to hide his worry.
"Yeah, best not split up." Grezzah agrees. "She don't look too tough, and if they're going to ambush us, then the more of us the better.
Not only for defense, but more of us to spot 'em hiding."
"I will follow her," says Hekau.
Penka isn't against it. "Alright."
Alyn shrugs and flashes an uneasy smile of her own, idly fidgeting with her pistol. "Sure beats wandering around on our own. The worst that happens is she tries to eat us and we find more of the townsfolk to bring back."
"Well, let's make it unanimous..." grunts Khoran.
Rounding through the corner, through the crack you hear an audible wince of pain and the fumbling of hands on rocks as someone seems to stumble up on the ledge.
Out of nowhere, two other female humanoids like the one in front of you appear in view. The one behind your group is visibly shaking and shivering, while the one underneath a 5-foot ledge in front of the crack has her shortsword drawn and is ready to fight the six of you.
The shivering one, in Taldane (Common), says the following between teeth chattering and shivers: "A-alright, w-why are there s-six of you d-down here th-this time? S-state your d-damn business. Maybe you can h-help us with a problem we've b-been having. We have you s-surrounded. Don't t-try anything"
There's a 5 foot drop between you and one of the humanoids, and you are properly surrounded. What do you do?
Grezzag tenses as the other skulks appear and readies himself for a physical confrontation. But at the talk of a problem he pauses and waits to see how the conversation plays out, but still eying the skulks in front of him.
Hekau is not intimidated in the slightest. While he intellectually realizes the slight possibility of his destruction, he does not feel fear, and so confidently asserts his analysis of the situation.
"Tactically, I would advise you that the mere fact of having us surrounded does not guarantee victory, given our numerical advantage. I would advise against instigating violence.
I would suggest that you explain your problem. We have traveled here in search of a human who may have passed by here several days ago.
If you can provide information on surface-dwellers who have passed this way, then I would attempt to assist you with resolving your problem."
"We're look for a human man named Khonnir Baine and the group of people he is with. They are several days overdue to return to the surface, and we are worried" adds Penka, hoping a name of a missing person might help.
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Zelvin does his best to look unfazed and friendly. "Greetings," he says cheerily in Common, and then again in Undercommon, in case some of them don't understand. "You say 'this time' which makes me think maybe you have seen the man we're lookin' for, a tall older fellow with graying temples and long black hair, no beard. We don't mean you any harm, so long as you don't mean us any harm. What seems to be the problem? If you can help us, I think we might be able to help you."
The first one you saw, before the others, pipes up, this time in Taldane (Common): "Middle-aged man with black hair? The one stupid enough to go through the metal door? If you are after the crazy one, we'll have to ask you to deal with a problem of our own, or we'll end up with a fight. You'll have to talk to our leader, Sef, first... and she'll discern if you're actually worth it."
Then, the same skulk maneuvers her way between you, making sure not to be threatening... yet.
Zelvin looks quickly at the others and runs his hand through his hair. "All right," he says, "Let's not fight. Take us to speak with Sef, an' we'll work this all out."
Hekau nods. "Yes, let us go to speak with Sef."
Penka goes along as well.
Khoran brings up the rear as we go to speak with Sef...
Grezzag follows, peering at every shadow or odd shaped rock for any more skulks.
Alyn tries not to stare at the other skulks as she passes, glancing anxiously around as she follows.
The first skulk, the one who the lot of you managed to spot leads you into a, comparatively, more open section of the caverns.
The ceiling of this vast chamber 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, seemingly going on forever.
Assuming all of you are still carrying around your light source taken from the fire beetles, you can see what seems to be a door made of what you can only describe as some form of a dark, grey metal in the distance. Said door is pitted, and scorched, but quite solid looking.
The same skulk that led you into the caverns speaks up: "I'll only take half of you to meet our leader, Sef; we don't want you to get any dumb ideas. Which three of you will it be?"
Penka does not volunteer, shifting a little to hide behind others and make herself unnoticed.
Zelvin doesn't even try not to look impressed at the giant cavern, though he does restrain himself from running over to the pit and looking down into what he imagines to be the Darklands. At the brusque invitation, he squints at the others, to try to see who wants to go and who wants to stay. "I reckon it could be a setup," he whispers quietly in Common, "Split us up and then attack? If they let Mister Khonnir through, and are familiar enough with him to recognize him by description, he probably didn't fight them. And that door does look like something he'd be interested in! If I go to meet Sef, maybe you'd come with me Grezzag? And maybe you, Khoran? Hekau, I'll do my best to come back to you, but if I don't make it, tell Mister Khonnir I'm sorry."
"This does have the appearance of a trap, Zelvin, but why spring it now in an open cavern where we can bring our numbers to bear? The skulks have surrendered their advantage by leaving the narrow corridor.
I am relatively certain we could kill them now if we suspected them.
Perhaps they are not very intelligent.
Or perhaps they are sincere."
"Yeah, I'll go" Grezzag says. "If there's only a couple of them out here, should be safe enough. As long as we ain't going too far, we can also shout out if there's any trouble."
"Coming..." is Khoran's laconic reply as he moves up from rearguard to join Zelvin and Grezzag. When he joins them, he mutters quickly and quietly, and then touches Zelvin on the forehead "Blessings of the spirits go with you."
This cramped cave is filled with metal junk covering almost every inch of ground. The precarious pile rises up in a heaplike hut to the northwest. Out of said hut, a skulk woman can be seen exiting, clutching her shortsword.
"I heard Luepel from here. I am Sef, leader of this tribe. Normally, we'd just end your lives here and take whatever you have on you. But our numbers have ... dwindled. I'd rather we survive, than try an assault where we're outnumbered. So, I'll offer you a deal. We'll give you a-- what I believe a certain middle-aged man you're looking for called 'technological'-- trinket. That, and free passage between the caves without getting attacked by us."
She coughs, clearly a bit tired and worn from something, before continuing, "You just need to agree to two conditions. Firstly, no harming any of us. Secondly, you need to deal with a nest of annoying gremlins in the caves to the east of here. You up for that?"
Khoran tries to assess how much they can trust Sef's honesty...
+4 wis
Khoran, you can tell she is absolutely not trying to hide anything. She's tired of having to deal with the annoying gremlin nest, and the exhaustion is plainly visible on her face.
Zelvin makes a brief show of considering Sef's request. He figures they aren't posturing, since they've admitted their weakness, so he decides that they've laid their cards on the table and decides to do the same. "Well, I reckon a foe that you folks can't take care of yourselves must be pretty formidable, but in the spirit of goodwill I think we might be willing to help you out. So long as you can prove you have seen the man we're looking for? Can you tell us anything else about him, to confirm his identity?"
Zelvin's manner is easy but curious-- he seems to find the skulk leader fascinating. "Forgive me for staring, but I've never met your kind before. I often explore caves around these parts but I've never been this deep-- well, not since I was born. My ma came from these parts, too, or so they tell me. She was an elf, but an unusual sort that lives under the surface lands." He clearly has feelings on this subject, as he briefly stares past Sef with a dark, brooding expression. Then he shakes his head and forces himself to come back to the present.
Khoran mutters to himself, consulting the spirits as he considers what he knows about Gremlins...
1 rank +3 trained +2 int +1 guidance
and his familiar circles his head, chipping in with what it knows.
-2 int, can make any Knowledge check untrained
Sef responds to the remark about Zelvin's race with a tad bit of curiousity, "Half-drow, then?"
After a good minute of recollecting information she remembers, she responds with regards to Mr. Baine, "We can tell he went through that door, had black hair, looking for these 'technological items,' and tried clearing the Gremlin nest but the leader fled. We offered his group the same deal we did yours, but he never returned the other way. Is that enough for you, half-drow," she says with some amount of venom in her voice.
Khoran, you can tell these are likely Jinkin Gremlins, fey that like to live in dark, wet caves like the one you're in now. They're known to curse people when working together as well.
Penka thinks the deal sounds okay, though she doesn't know precisely what a gremlin is, and she would say so if anyone were to ask her.
Zelvin gives Khoran a thankful look, recognizing the spell. He nods uncomfortably to Sef. "I don't know much about the drow, but most of what I hear ain't good. Now the human side, there I could tell you all kinds of things, except which one of them was my pa, or why. You ever hear of a dark elf taking up with a surface dweller? I imagine it was quite the scandal."
He looks a bit surprised at the heat Sef seems to have for Khonnir Baine and his group, but he purses his lips and looks to Grezzan and Khoran. "You mind if I take this back to the others, to make sure everyone is on board? Our group doesn't have a leader-- we're a bunch of like-minded individuals who all want more or less the same thing right now. Let me see what they think of the deal."