"This was meant to be a seriously strong door." mutters Farden as he follows their guide.

"It looks like someone was planning on preventing people, or something" Glumr eyes the spider at the word something "from coming through the portal and just walking in.  Must mean people must come this way occasionally.  They could be half expecting us.  We should be extra alert."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Thu 15 Nov 2012.

The party proceeds with caution.  A few hundred feet later you pass a stone and metal door in the left wall.  It's short by your standards.  Squarish instead of rectangular like you're used to.  In passing it looks like it is sturdy, but doesn't get much use.  The spider pays it no attention.  In fact you pass a few other similar doors and side passages along the way, but the spider breezes past them too.

There's light in the distance.  It's the first sign of life down here since the burning wolves' den.  You cover or snuff out your own lights and send Glumr stealthy up ahead.  When he gets close enough to make out the situation he see's that there's no one tending the light.  It glows in the ceiling at an intersection of your 20' wide, 20' tall, tunnel with a smaller square tunnel which is about 5' x 5' instead.  Glumr notices that the floor is slightly scuffed here, which means someone on something comes through here from time to time.  It's hard to tell how recently or how frequently.  He returns to the party to report his findings.

While the group has been moving, Farden has been making chalk marks to mark their path, in case they need to find their way back in a hurry and something's happened to the spider.

When Glumr reports back, Farden shrugs, "We're following the spider. If we meet anyone else, we'll worry about it then. Let's just keep our eyes open."

Glumr thinks about the square doors and checks to see if any of them have been opened recently.  "Do you think we are in a dwarven place?  I met once ones... or maybe he was a gnome.  I was never really sure.  But these are different than what we are used to seeing.  I'm going to peek in one."  He puts his hear against it first to see if he hears anything.

Glumr rolled 7 using 1d20+5. Listen at square door.
OCC - What would I roll to see if the door has been used recently?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:34, Fri 16 Nov 2012.

You put your ear to the door and all you can hear is a low, dull, but reasonably loud hum.  It's a consistent noise and it drowns out whatever else might be going on in the room.  Normally you're pretty good at figuring out what noises are, but today you're drawing a blank on this low hum.

You think that the best way to figure out if the door has been used recently is to check the handle for traces of skin oil, but wait... there's no handle.  You give the door a push and a shove to the both sides, but it doesn't budge in any direction.  How does this thing open?  There are two small oddly shaped holes in the door.  Some sort of keyholes, maybe?

Glumr looks at the holes more carefully, seeing if he can see through them or if they look like anything he has could be inserted into it.  He makes a mental note at the sizes so that he will hopefully recognize the key when he sees it.

For some moments after having passed through the portal Sunna just examines the room the party is in. Did they really travel through to some other place? It looks oddly familiar here.
Still wondering about the place she follows the others and stops from time to time to take a closer look at one of the square doors. "Dwarves? They are rather small and sturdy, as far as I know. Might be."

"Maybe it is a door one can push to the side? That would make these holes some sort of handle to move it sidewards", Sunna muses in a quiet voice but doesn't feel curious enough to try for now.

The holes don't go very deeply into the door.  You've got a good mental picture of the shapes for future reference.

Farden motions everyone to get moving again.  The spider leads you up to the intersection with the light.  It hunkers down and moves into the right branch of the smaller tunnel.  You have to travel single file now.  Unless I hear otherwise Farden goes first after the spider, followed by Hollly because the spider seems to stop if she lags to far behind.  Next is Sunna, then the eye with Glumr and Talita guarding the rear.

You can see another light up ahead.  It's probably another lit intersection.  This time you hear activity too.

Farden is going to ready his sword and shield, and proceed cautiously after the spider.

As you near the intersection you can see a number of short, stocky humanoids approaching the intersection from the opposite direction.  It's hard to tell how many since, like you, they are traveling single file through the small passage.  You imagine that all they can truly make out of your group is the spider and a well armed warrior follow by others.

One of them calls out a short phrase in a language you do not understand.  His voice is powerful and insistent.

"Sorry, I don't understand you." calls back Farden. Then, on the grounds that it was worth a shot, he adds, "We come in peace!"

It was certainly worth a shot.  Farden had never met a dwarf in Rankor Heights who didn't speak Clan Tongue.  Unfortunately, these humanoids do not answer back.  They are slowly approaching.

'Anyone have an understand language spell up their sleeve?' Glumr whispers to his friends as he makes sure his symbols of Ehlonna are visible.  "Friends!  Do you speak the common language?"  Glumr says in a loud voice while showing the sign of peace.

OCC - Assume there is some type of sign to show for peace or good will, such as arms crossed over the chest.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:58, Mon 19 Nov 2012.

"Dwarves?" Sunna whispers to her friends and then remembers a melody to help understanding other people. She continues in a low voice:"There is a spell that makes understanding them possible, but I have to touch one of them first... And it doesn't help with speaking their tongue."

Sunna makes sure that her hands are not on the hilt of her sword and tries to look as if she's absolutely calm.
"Or do you speak the goblin tongue?" the bard asks carefully, speaking slowly and pronouncing the last two words in the goblin tongue.


OOC: I hope speaking Goblin is not an insult in here...
This message was lightly edited by the player at 05:02, Tue 20 Nov 2012.

Farden is going to point his sword down and away from the dwarves - a passive stance, but clearly indicating that he is ready to defend himself if need be.

Glumr, in a low voice so the Dwarves cant hear, says "I hope they dont mistake us for friends of goblins." and gives Sunna a grin and a wink.

Sunna pushes her way past the spider and walks towards the dwarves.  They stop in the intersection and mill around.  There look to be 6 of them.  (You were expecting 7, maybe?)  They call something out to her and say things amongst themselves, but none of it makes any sense yet.  Sunna can see that they are dirty, wearing well worn leather smocks and aprons over thick, durable cloth.  They don't really appear to be armed, but are carrying metal tools and hammers, which could certainly be used as weapons in a pinch.

Sunna is almost two feet taller than the dwarves and has to hunch down in the tunnel, back she can stand up normally in the intersection of these two small tunnels.  The intersection widens out into a 15' x 15' room with an 7 foot ceiling.  One of the dwarfs steps up to her just as she enters the intersection room.  He's about to say something when Sunna starts singing.  This surprises and confuses the dwarf.  He doesn't expect her to reach out and touch his shoulder either.

He says something and another dwarf says something too.  Maybe an answer.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:06, Tue 20 Nov 2012.

OCC - Do the dwarves see the rest of the party?

"You know..."  Glumr whispers to Farden "...considering who sent us on this mission, we might be the bad guys here.  Especially with this spider thing.  For all we know the Dwarves were building that door to keep things like this out so they can just live in peace.  I know the Dwarves north of the Triplefang have a good relationship with the clan.  I'd hate to have this job ruin that.  But considering the portal, who knows where we even are."

You're well illuminated.  They can surely see the spider, probably Farden, and that there are more of you behind him.  It's likely that they lack the details of exactly who and what and how many you are.

Sunna listens to the dwarves and keeps a respectful conversational distance after she has touched one of them. She tries the goblin tongue again, while trying to picture her words with hand gestures.

Please make a d20+CHR bonus roll to see how successful your gestures are.  I'd say DC 15, but 12 or higher will be partial success.

OOC: Sunna rolled 4 using 1d20+3. trying to make myself understandable.
:(

At least it's humorously bad!

You flail your arms in a wide circle and do your best give-peace-a-chance mime, which actually causes you to lose your balance and stumble over.

The dwarves are disturbed by this.  They retreat back the way they came.

Unable to speak dwarven, the young druidess must let the dwarves wander off into the cave.