Expedition

[Swix]

The crowd in front of Grog raised their clawed arms up and cheered. "Yay! Punch the meanies!" Echoed throughout.

This certainly prevented the sounds of small fingers rummaging around in the sack Grog carried after a few residents had clambered up the thing out of curiousity. However upon seeing the gold at least three of the creatures scooped a bunch of it out, scattering what fell out as they then ran away happily chittering to themselves.

Little thieves.

[TheDarkPsycho]

Grog failed to notice the creatures stealing the gold or even the sound of it falling - so wrapped up he was in his chant of "Punch the meanies"

[BoltAscendent]

Zerexe let out a low, deep growl. She began to walk after the little thieves, sniffing at the air as she tried to keep her instincts down. Just what are they doing? It took little effort or skill to notice her hunting them, on edge and irritable. She looked more like her old self.

[Jent]

"What the heck are you little ones doing? You need to trade first," Sergius retorted, though held himself back from swooping down upon Zerexe's introduction. They didn't need to gang up on them all at once. Not the best way to improve relations.

[Swix]

Several of the creatures mouths dropped at hearing Sergius talk, and they all started to crowd around him, wanting to poke him. "A talking bat!" They exclaimed "It's a miracle!"

Meanwhile, those ones not either wrapped up in a chant or busy stealing gold started following around Zerexe and hissing at her.

The few left-well, their ears and their stances pricked up at the word 'trade' but then they started acting uncomfortable. "But we can't trade" one finally spoke up "All our good stuff is below, with the meanie surface dwellers"

[Jent]

Why are they so fascinated with bats? Wait-below? So these beings tend to live underground, and were displaced to the surface?

"Well," Sergius started off, looking off at his fellow party members. The little ones don't appear to be hostile, and appeared to have first claim to the underground instead of those unknown 'surface dwellers.' To the Homunculus, helping resolve this issue might create a strong pact towards the Encampment.

[Game Master]

An eerie rustle among the trees whistled through the air, drawing some silence from the kobolds in turn. What will the Encampment's Expedition force decide? Aid these small dwellers of the underground to reclaim their home? Spark up a deal with the current inhabitants down below? Ditch these folk and venture to other lands instead?

[TheDarkPsycho]

Grog: Grog think we should punch meanies who took home form little friends.

[BoltAscendent]

Zerexe nodded, crossing her arms and thinking. "Shouldn't be too much of an issue. We can handle most anything we see." The golden woman cracked her knuckles, humming and growling.

[Swix]

"HOORRRRAAAAAAYYY!!!" A sudden cry went up, taken by all the creatures in the village at hearing they would help, and echoing as the word was passed along. "Big strong warriors will help the kobolds!" Some of them around Grog celebrated before turning around. "This way! This way!" They beckoned for the group to follow them to the very centre of the village, where there was a large trapdoor over what must be the entrance to the underground. Unfortunately, it had had had a mound of what was probably debris piled over the top of it at least twenty feet high, and had been covered over with as much cloth as they could get their small clawed hands on. ".... We didn't want them following us up, so we piled all their creepy statues and trees on top of it" One kobold explained

All while this was going off the thieves were actually putting the stolen gold back into Grogs pack.

[Jent]

The Homunculus sighed. At least everyone settled on this task-well, guess they could call this an adventure, given the circumstances. That and these 'kobolds' actually started putting back the gold they snatched.

"So we just need to move this out of way first," Sergius stated the obvious, transforming into a humanoid form to better assist in the endeavor. There was no sign of skin exposed as the 'man' was covered in head to toe in his shinobi shōzoku. Dark purple garments, with warmer blue accented trim spread apart. Even his face was concealed in the outfit.

[TheDarkPsycho]

Grog however, didn't even wait, diving right into the task of taking large chunks of the barrier apart and throwing them to the side.

[Swix]

The large group gathered around the smaller but larger group continued tgeir chant of "Punch the meanies!" from earlier as they watched start puing the barrier apart. Oddly enough they didn't help, only scurried out of the way when trees with faces and stone statues of trees with faces hit the ground and were uncovered by the cloth, hissing at them and then putting the cloth back over their eyes.

Savannah and Beauty stood guard-the Spinosaur wasn't deft enough to help, nor was Savannah strong enough-yet the group of reptilian goblin like creatures gathered around them as well, in awe of the dinosaur.

[Jent]

Huh, strange the kobolds felt so frightened they need to cover up the odd rocks and logs. Sergius figured it was just some superstition as he went over to assist Grog in clearing the entrance. More like staying out of the big guy's way, to be completely honest. Even as the Homunculus stretched his arms to help pull away the rumble, the larger muscles of the group were doing more than he done.

[Game Master]

Once the expedition force cleared away the unusual debris, they found a large trapdoor revealed underneath. The metal latch to keep it locked was missing. Likely one reason those kobolds dumped all that junk to keep it closed, given it take a bit of strength to lift the door.

Brief lights broke up the darkness below. A staircase, descending into the original home of the cave-dwellers, would have a ceiling large enough for most of the party. Tallers fellows would need to wait outside until they returned (possibly wise if they wanted eyes watching the entrance for the kobolds).