"Hmm, I believe the cult of Orcus perform blood sacrifices. I think we should be gentle with this young lady, Yrenn and get her warm and safe. May we take you home, miss?"
"My apologies dear Jake. Who is this Orcus anyways?" Please don't be a demon lord. Please don't be a demon lord.
"Oh, Demon Lord of the Undead. Didn't I mention that? Sorry!"
"I thought you said you didn't know?"
Elmo offers a paw to the girl. "Allow me to escort you home Miss."
"I said I wasn't sure," Jake corrects with a massive hint of 'don't make me look bad' to Elmo.
"Sorry. I must have misheard you." Elmo smiles toothily and apologetically at his friend.
"Jake is both noble and learned, he will help you. I will help you. We'll all help you."
"No worries! But yes, Orcus, ooh bad news!"
"Orcus is the demon Lord of Undead and the sworn enemy of the Raven Queen, his priests are usually necromancers and demand blood scarifies. This human was probably using the cows as a sacrifice but for him and his cult to gain more favor from Orcus they would have to sacrifice sentient creatures. It is also unlikely the farmhand is the one in charge, the rituals needed to commune with Orcus are not usually written down and must be taught".
I will wrap Orcus' holy symbol in a cloth and put it away until I have the time to destroy it.
"I thought you said you didn't know?"
Elmo offers a paw to the girl. "Allow me to escort you home Miss."
"Please take me home. I can't stand to stay here any more," the girl says.
The mage continues her questioning.
"Have you had any contact with him since he was banished by your father?"
"No, in fact I wasn't aware that he was still in town," she says. "After my father drove him off, people said he had left town for Fallcrest or Winterhaven."
"Duke Elmo, Bringer of Doom, Survivor of Devils and nemisis of Suky the Seamstress, very much at your service Miss. Yours too," he adds to the rest of the group.
"Among friends, I don't use my title." The kobold gestures benevolently to include all the assembled company.
"To business. When did your father dismiss this despicable human from his service?"
"That was about a year ago," she says.
"Yes let us see you back home."
"He seems to have changed his mind about leaving Miss. Did you recognise the man in charge of that ruffianly gang of kidnappers?"
The woman leads you across town to a small but well lit cottage. "This is where I live," she tells you. "Thank you for rescuing me." Then she bends over and give Jake and Elmo a kiss on the cheek before slipping in the door.
Jake blushes, "Ah, doing good is its own reward. But there are fringe benefits!"
"What say we duff up those demon cultists?"
Elmo looks utterly bewildered. "Why did she do that Jake?..." He shakes his head. "Let's hunt for cultists! Where shall we begin comrades?"
Jake looks as though he might launch into an explanation and then just says, "Y'know, it was kind of unusual in your case, but she's a nice lady obviously!"
"I suggest that everyone that plans on going.....down there" looking at grate "prepair themselves. Once we've caught our breath, then we should try and track the rod wielder that got away. Where are the city guards to deal with the bodies anyways?"
We could ask our captive to guide us to them under penalty of death should he betray us.
"Where are the authories, indeed."
We could ask our captive to guide us to them under penalty of death should he betray us.
"Where are the authories, indeed."
Forget the guards, explaining will take to much time and we could loose our 'guide' as well.
"Goblin, do you have a name? If you lead us to your employer, without any mischief, then I'll not feed you to Ba'az."
*I hiss and snap at the goblins face*
"Steady on there! I won't have any prisoners being maltreated, y'know."
Yrenn gives Jake a surreptitious wink.
Jake looks puzzled and then goes "Ohhhhhh...."
Mumbles under his breath and shakes his head
"humans...."
Jake looks up at Ba'az, "Wassat? You gotta remember I'm down here, big guy. But as we halflings say 'First it was the Dragons, then the Giants, then the Humans, then... it's our turn!' Pretty good, huh?" he beams in a jovial manner.
"You pinkskins all look alike to me".
"Our legends say that kobolds came before dragons and helped them to hatch."
Momentarily distracted from the matter in hand, Elmo rummages through his pack for his precious diary before remembering more important issues.
"You, goblin-thing. Take us to your cultists."
"You pinkskins all look alike to me".
"OK, well, it's kind of like this - look at Elmo here. See how short he is compared to you? Right? OK, so that's like halflings to humans. Just remember, we're the short ones, but smarter. Easy as pie. Speaking of which, I could use some before we bust the heads of evil."
Elmo nods emphatically. "We are compactly and elegantly designed."
He silently passes Jake a sandwich from his backpack and turns his attention back to the goblin.
"Cultists. Where are they?"
Jake nods in thanks and takes the sandwich, between munches he says, "Well," *Gromph* "Cultists and sewers" *MUNCH* "Go together like" *SNARFLE* "Beef and mustard! Mmm!"
Mumbles under his breath and shakes his head
"halflings...."
"It's ham and tomato, you finished the beef and mustard. Jake needs regular meals, he says it's part of being heroic."
"Look, it's like this - my body is a temple" Jake expounds, "And like a temple, it needs funds. In this case, splendid tuck from my companion here."
The goblin refuses to tell you his name, but does agree to show you the enterence to the cult's lair. A half hour later, you are standing in front of a door, so cleverly concealed that you would have never found it yourself.
Elmo looks hard at the goblin. "Have this and tell us if there's anything we need to know about this place."
He holds a ham salad sandwich out temptingly.
"The way is guarded by traps and guardians. It will be difficult for you to reach the inner sanctum alive," the goblin tells you. "Beyond that much I cannot say. I personally have never been past this point."
Ba'az will start forward keeping an eye and ear out anything unuseual and stop when he gets to B-12 and wait s for the others to join him.
Logan draws his swords and begins creeping forward. "I'll go first. I've done this sort of thing before."