Norion will continue moving forward once the others reaction gives him sight of the figure.  He'll look around at other similar hiding spots to see if there are other crossbowman, if not, he'll move up the path until he's about 25 feet away and then stop and in a hushed dwarven tongue say, "What are ya' hunting today?"

Ben drops into a low crouch and begins to sneak towards the figure, hoping to catch him unaware.

This is of course ruined by the brash straight forward Norion. C'est la vie!

Hopefully Ben is hidden in the shadows at this time...

The kneeling humanoid does not respond in any visible fashion to Norion's query. The being remains standing there, crossbow raised heavenward, very still.

Rath frowns and eyes his surroundings suspiciously. He mutters to Saliq, "Petrified, you think?"

Monvo interjects, "Doesn't look like that fellow there has moved a stitch to my eyes. So, I'd say you're probably on to something," he whispers in an almost snide tone. Was there any other tone with Monvo?

Norion shrugs and figuring what he already figured, the thing is dead, like the rest, walks forward and first inspects the figure close up, eyeing the angle of his aim,, then sniffing, is it long dead, finally, a step back, using his great axe to hook a shoulder and drag it to the ground.

Meanwhile, Ben creeps to within 10 feet of the kneeling humanoid and finally gets a better view. Definitely a dwarf, though beardless, bald, but still ugly. So there was that.

And oh yeah, seemingly completely made of stone. Interesting place for a statue. And the pose!

Stone, Norion will look it over carefully, was it carved, any chistle marks, signs of aging, was this a real dwarf, or druegar, can he tell, he'll inspect the angle of his weapon, anything interesting he was aiming at...

Norion walks past Ben, who had been hiding behind a large toadstool mushroom, and approaches the stony humanoid and immediately recognizes it for what it is: a gray dwarf...duergar!

The despicable clan of lost dwarves who long ago turned their backs on the All-Father and came willingly to the altar of the Dark Gods of Deceit.

The statue is quite lifelike and of exceptional craftsmanship...except it probably wasn't crafted by any artisan, if Rath's hunch proved correct. But, what manner of creature could turn a dwarf to stone?!

Norion inspects the angle and sees nothing but the vastness of the cavern ceiling above the toadstool canopy.

The dwarf then hacks off the duergar's arm with his axe. The arm crashes to the ground with a thud. Solid stone.

Norion stares at the shattered arm on the ground, spits on it,

"Something has done the world a great service 'ere, these arr Duergar, as ah expected, whatever has destroyed this city, let us search it out and give it thanks..."

Inas looked at the stone duergar, then scanned around. "Give it thanks?" he muttered, "I think not. Evil though your lost brethren may be, they are still living creatures. Flesh and bone, and made by the Gods. If this one has indeed been turned to stone then I fear powerful magicks are at work. I have heard tales of wicked creatures, beautiful temptresses that lure you in with song and soft words, then when your guard is down they weave their spells and leave you as a statue forever. Naught but a trinket to adorn their palaces. We should be careful."

"I don't understand." Saliq injerected.  "The other bodies Eagle saw were not of stone... why this one alone?"

The illusionist glanced in the direction of the city proper.  "If we are to discover what took place we'll have to examine another body... maybe several."

Much of the conversation is over Ben's head, but he does get the idea that the others think this stone guy was once alive.

Shrug...

Given that though, Ben goes over to the statue looking of any sign of a pouch or purse, then attempts to shatter it using a rock on the back of his dagger like a chisel, to see if the guys coins are still inside.

Norion looks at Inas, clearly not in an agreeable mood, "If being made by the Gods is yer only concern, then evil does not exist, wotever monster did this, ah'll thank it, an' if its evil too, then ah'll kill, but first, ah'll thank it....only polite"

Ben moves alongside Norion and also hacks at the stone dwarf, breaking off another piece of the ill-fated humanoid. The thief's hopes of dislodging any treasure from the effort are sadly misplaced, for all that the action brings forth is crumbled mortar and stone.

No treasure will be gained from this unfortunate, unless there might be value in the stone itself?

Mortar? That seemed odd... would a being turned into stone contain such ingredients.

"Look at this, Norion," Ben said, hoping the dwarf would be able to make some judgement based on the odd crumbly insides.

Norion looks at the mortar and stone crumbles, shrugs, he's beyound his depth figuring our magic, or monsters magic like abilities, he will continue on down the path towards the city, keeping a close eye for anything abnormal with the stone path.

With a shrug Ben follows, though he is of the opinion that the figure was not the result of magic, or, oddly enough, of sculpting, as that is usually done from a single stone. Some sort of casting perhaps? He hoped it wouldn't matter...

The party continues along the trail toward the city ahead and soon encounters another stone dwarf, this one running away, but looking back at the city. A few yards further up the trail, three more dwarf-sized humanoids lie on the ground.

All three have been dead for a while, judging by their advanced decaying state. Save for their clothing, none appear to be outfitted with any armor or weapons. When the heroes approach closer, they detect the faint smell of vinegar mixed with a hint of death.

Ben topples the running stone dwarf as he passes if he can, then examines the contents again.

Further on Ben wrinkles his nose at the smell of vinegar. True, he enjoyed some foul odors, but this was not one of them!

The broken statue's contents look similar to the last one. Save for the "realness" of the statue, there is nothing unusual to be seen here. The stone looks exactly as one might suspect.

OOC: Apologize if my previous description of the broken statue caused anyone to read too much into its appearance. It looks like stone. Pure and simple.

Fingers twitching at the sight of bodies to search, the memory of the maggots digging thru the skin of Inas keeps Ben in his place.

Norion will approach the decaying corpses.  Yep, adventuring was everything it promised to be, although deciding if rotting Duergar were worse or better than the innards of a roper monster, now that would be discussion over ales if they ever saw the inside of a tavern again.

He will check out there positions, are the face down, he will look closely to see if he can see any broken bones, gashes, anything to indicate a method of their demise.  And look around them, for any signs of tracks, or the source of the vinegar smell.

"Ya' said as a bat, ya' thought you smelled acid, was it similar to this?  We are getting some serious clues here, anyone with any ideas. Given that the two stone Duergar were staring, one out inta the cavern and the other over its shoulder, I'm guessing wotever did this, you 'ave to look at it to be stoned, an' it can fly, just guessing.  These others, any guesses ta' wot we are dealing with. "

Rath shrugs unhappily. He finds it difficult to scan the upper reaches of the cavern for dangers while simultaneously averting his eyes. "Out of my depth here. I got no guesses worth saying."

Eagle nods at Alo's unhappiness. 'I guess it smelt similar Norion, not sure I can tell one acid from another really. Whatever thing - or things - that did this, they wiped out a whole city, so not sure entirely what we're going to do if we find them.' It's clear Eagle would far prefer to return to the surface and seal the door as best as they can manage with a rock-fall.