Exactly! 

(Jorin ruins the DM's plan to have him do a comedic face plant, with a cave badger sitting on top of his head in the mud.)

Jorin carefully moves forward, his neck muscles tense to hold up the weight of the cave badger on his head. The muscle strain and the redness of his face make him look like he is about to rage (rather than someone who is trying to save face after underestimating the effort this requires).

(Hildigrim had a terrible roll, but I'll have Drusk stop the stratagem before it starts. If you still want to follow that idea instead of a new one, I will use the 3 for the skill check.)

As Hildigrim is about to happily greet the "fellow Xanathars", Drusk steps in front of him (to block their view), and hides away his own medallion. "I don't think that is the right move. They don't look happy, and at least 3 of them are gripping their medallions tightly in their fists, like they are angry... The Xanathar Guild are about power and bullying. Maybe we should try something different."

Drusk will look at Pascal. Remembering their talk before meeting the Hired Horrors, Drusk will smile, showing a lot of teeth and gnashing them together.

(If Pascal wants to change from Deception to Persuasion or Intimidation, he can use the roll he already made.)

For Quillary only. (Have fun communicating with actions instead of words.)

The badger wrinkles her nose and paws at it a little, then blows her tongue in a “phah!” sound, and blows air out of her nose.

Hildigrim quickly hides his medallion. "I wonder what has made them angry."

Pascal will happily swell his neck, bear his massive jaws, and make his eyes look glassy. Pascal whispers, “I believe that the ‘silent and terrifying beast look’ will do y’all well. And now, for the pièce de résistance.” Pascal emulates a loud and threatening gator hiss as the group walks by. His intimidation is +6!

Pascal and Jorin (with a massive Cave Badger glaring from the top of his head) make an imposing duo. You don't need to have Quillary's nose to smell the fear and uncertainty coming from the opposing party. (They consist of two fighter types, a rogue, a plate-armored cleric, and a mage-type.) The four of them take a half-step back, leaving the rogue in front. When he notices this, he grumbles at the others, then growls at the Road Enders.

"What's your problem? You don't want to mess with us, and our patience is short after a long day."

(OOC: The Road Enders are wounded, while their party is at full health, so you may not want to start a fight. But they have no way of knowing how much of the blood on your clothes is yours, and how much is from whoever you met before now.)

Hildigrim places a hand on Pascal's leg, attempting to convince the big lizard to back off.

“The Pascal” will make a big show of Hildigrims clear control  over the great and mighty lizard beast. He will back down.

They still wait (somewhat nervously) to find out why you are hassling them before they can drink their worries away.

Do we need to hassle them?

The badger makes no hostile moves towards the other group. In fact, it closes its eyes and snores quietly.

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

Do we need to hassle them?

With the Road Enders just standing there quietly, the other group gives a dismissive snort and starts to walk away, towards the seedy tavern.

(You’ve got time to do something, but you can easily let them go.)

I say we let them go and head for the bridge.

Drusk: "Skull Island is full of troops sworn to the Xanathar. It would help if we knew where to look on the island. That is, assuming that the Drow courier is still on the island, and not taken somewhere else."

(OOC: There is still one more way to get intel about the situation, but I want to point out that diving into an evil fortress, blind, will make things a lot tougher.)

Jorin pipes up, calling out to their psuedo-corworkers, "Aye, a hard day indeed.  How about we bang a few mugs of ale together?  Share in woe and drink alike!"

OoC - perhaps we can garner intell whilst partying with them at the seedy tavern.

Quote from Guiltysparc >>

Jorin pipes up, calling out to their psuedo-corworkers, "Aye, a hard day indeed.  How about we bang a few mugs of ale together?  Share in woe and drink alike!"

OoC - perhaps we can garner intell whilst partying with them at the seedy tavern.

(OOC: Earlier, Hildigrim tried the "let's be friends" routine, and got a 3 for Persuasion. Any attempts to be buddies means I will use that roll.

I am trying to avoid that by giving the group a chance to try something different, but let me know if you want to proceed anyways. It is not the end of the world, I guess.)

Oh, i forgot about Hildi's attempt.

It worked for the lion and tin man. Don't ya think we can just storm the castle?

I am happy to do some castle storming, however we are pretty beat up as a group.  Perhaps a short rest with some hit die recovery first?