Return To The Ruins (Warlords Palace)

[Rex]

Drest

Whispering, "I am sure they are trying ambush us."

[shaidar]

Xenos whispers

"They hate the light, does anyone have a lantern or oil we could set alight and throw to distract them."

Once the group is ready to move forward, Xenos will cast Chill Touch.

[Monsieur Rose]

Kainaxarthos

"Tell them we killed the Matron. And we have the grub." Kain whispers to the Norse whisperer.

[Belkregos]

Belloc strains trying to listen to the continued whispers coming from the shadows then steps forward and addresses the darkness in old norse, his mind racing looking for meaning in the murmurs

 Drawing a breath, he addressed the unseen in the ancient tongue, his voice echoing through the shattered halls. "Morðinginn er fallinn! Við frelsuðum barnið, slökktum á oki hennar. Munið það."—
With a glance at his companions, he shifted to Common. "Show them," he urged, his hand sweeping towards the woven basket they had borne from the Matron's lair.

Returning to the ancient tongue, Belloc pressed on, his voice a blade against the gloom. "Við veittuð ykkur aðstoð. Nú sækjum við ykkar... og leiðar djúpri inn í hellirnar."—

[Karaunios]

That's modern Icelandic, not Old Norse. They might not understand you

[OGRE MAGE]

There’s always that one guy……..

[Belkregos]

alright alright,

Belloc strains trying to listen to the continued whispers coming from the shadows then steps forward and addresses the darkness in old norse, his mind racing looking for meaning in the murmurs

Drawing a breath, he addressed the unseen in the ancient tongue, his voice echoing through the shattered halls. "—"The Matron is slain! We freed the child, quenched her tyranny. Remember that."

With a glance at his companions, he shifted to Common. "Show them," he urged, his hand sweeping towards the woven basket they had borne from the Matron's lair.

Returning to the ancient tongue, Belloc pressed on, his voice a blade against the gloom. "—"We aided you. Now, we seek yours... and passage deeper into the caves."

[Karaunios]

Just kidding! Talk about luck – we've got a guy with a PhD in Scandinavian Studies in the mix

[silifi]

Sik, hearing talk of ambush, looks behind him to the shore of the river, though he's unsure whether the dwarves could possibly arrive from that position.

"Drest, is there an angle at which they could ambush us ahead that you can see?" he calls out.

[Rex]

Drest

"Several actually. We should stick to one wall, the center of the cave looks like a death trap."

[OGRE MAGE]

Our absent maggot surrogate parent will go along with the groups plan, though he again feels like you might be missing out on easy opportunity.

Under The Zakath Desert
Free Work
No Idea On Time Of Day

Disgusted by the mess and stench in this cave, the entire party readies for battle, despite their earlier decision to parlay, simply not trusting these aggressive underground creatures in the least.

Without thinking it through completely, and at the order of Kainaxarthos, Belloc speaks into the darkness beyond the groups several torches. Without provocation, he tells the unseen dwarfs that they have already killed the Matron, a known enemy of theirs. Then he freely reveals that they’ve taken possession of their missing dwarf maggot, which results in a rather unexpected response.

Three short, grotesquely muscular humanoids walk into the edge of the distant torchlight, on the opposite side of the wide open chamber from the nervous party. They are odd looking, stocky, bald and tattooed. They are naked from the waist up, and carry strange looking military picks in their sinewy limbs.

The look astonished that any human can speak their ancient tongue, and are clearly interested in seeing the proffered disgusting offspring. One responds to Belloc inquisitively, softening their normal kill-em-all mentality against any but their own kin. ᚤᛟᚢ ᚴᛁᛚᛚᛖᛞ ᛏᚺᛖ ᛗᛟᛏᚺᛖᚱ ᛟᚠ ᚠᚱᛟᚷᛋ? ᚨᚾᛞ ᚱᛖᛋᚲᚢᛖᛞ ᛏᚺᛖ ᚷᚱᚢᛒ ᛋᚺᛖ ᛋᛏᛟᛚᛖ ᚠᚱᛟᛗ ᚢᛋ?

Belloc ONLY:

“You killed the mother of frogs? And rescued the grub she stole from us?”

They look at each other, nodding their heads in agreement and lowering their dangerous looking weapons. ᛋᛏᛖᛈ ᚠᛟᚱᚹᚨᚱᛞ ᛋᛟ ᚹᛖ ᛗᚨᚤ ᛋᛈᛖᚨᚴ ᚠᚱᛖᛖᛚᚤ ᚨᚾᛞ ᛒᚨᚱᛏᛖᚱ ᚠᛟᚱ ᛟᚢᚱ ᚴᛁᚾ.
Belloc:

“Step forward so we may speak freely and barter for our kin.”

The three freakish dwarfs take a few more steps forward, squinting into your light and looking a little unsure of what might happen.

Actions?

Drest (Sc4) AC7 22/22
Xenos (DS3) AC5 17/17 Torch
Akhilleus (F4) AC4 35/35
Kainaxarthos (C2) AC6 11/11 Torch
Sik (Ba1) AC5 11/12
Cyril (Pr2) AC8 12/12 CLW
Ceana (D2) AC5 13/13 Torch
Taibhse (Sh2) AC5 11/11 Torch
Belloc (M2) AC6 14/14

[Rex]

Drest

"What did they say Belloc?"

[Karaunios]

Akhilleus remains silent and on guard.

[Belkregos]

Belloc

in common
the matron was her enemy, indeed the matron took the child from them, they want o barter for it,
i'll ask them if there are other groups we need to be careful off if we continue

Belloc steps forward
-in old Norse
the child is safe
- are there more enemies down here? do you have a map so we can continue?

OOC: Belloc will start translating for the group, please assume belloc translates so i dont hold up the posting and we can move on

[Ahlmzhad]

Taibhse

Is pleased with the events unfolding up front. He continues to hold his torch, and keep watch to the parties rear.

[shaidar]

Xenos

"Safe passage through their caves, and back would be useful, if we can trust them. Then there is that gem the witch wanted..."

[The_Wanderer]

Xenos

"Safe passage through their caves, and back would be useful, if we can trust them. Then there is that gem the witch wanted..."

Cyril

"I would settle for being named Dwarf-Friend or some such thing. The fact is we don't have a destination through their caves, we would like to explore and potentially would be willing to aid the dwarves in any difficulties they are facing - within reason."

[Rex]

Drest

"I am wouldn't trust their word. They are foul creatures."

[hedgeknight]

Ceana

The druid watches intently, not really understanding what the point of all this is.

[Monsieur Rose]

Kainaxarthos

He nods in appreciation of the lack of violence. "Good, good. Maybe ask about the gem and the snake people?"

"These dwarfs may have information about things down here, those snake people came from somewhere."