At Wynn's words, Proserpina shrugs. "I am not particularly adept at stealth."

Turning towards the wall further on, she raises a hand to her mouth, calling out in a booming voice boosted by thaumaturgy, "Dwarves of the company, are you here? We've come from Phandalin with a warning from the townmaster."

Poco also hears the voices as he peers into the well. He says quietly to The group- 

“what happened here? It’s unusual to fill in a water source without digging another. It fills wrong here.”

[[Sorry for not posting or explaining, COVID has been sucking up all my energy i'll propbably post something today]]

You hear a call from deeper in the excavation, beyond the wall, "What? Who's that? show yourselves!" in a gruff tone.

Dargrimm takes up Wynn's suggestion. He calls back to the dwarves: "Greetings. I am Dargrimm Firebeard, a dwarven cleric of Moradin. Me and my companions are here to warn you of an aggressive white dragon roaming about. It would be best if we can talk face to face."

Proserpina looks around in vague confusion, "Show ourselves? We're not hiding?"

Quote from Wizardously >>

Proserpina looks around in vague confusion, "Show ourselves? We're not hiding?"

 Wynn shrugs at Proserpina and lowers his bow.

Poco chuckles at Proserpina's statement. He says to Wynn 

"Do you think we should go in? Maybe there was an accident and the miners are trapped."  

"Hi, Rohani here," she says in response, giving a large wave in the direction of the voice to make herself visible.

 

Two dwarves, one eating some rations out of a small satchel, emerge from behind a pile of rubble.

Past the dwarves, you see a courtyard. A partially collapsed, ten-foot-high wall separates this courtyard from the settlement west of it. Three heaps of rubble are piled high in this area. Hewn from the canyon’s back wall, a thirty-foot-high temple facade features steps rising to a stone platform. Cut into this facade is a ten-foot-high open doorway flanked by crumbling, life-sized granite statues of cloaked dwarves. Evil grins can be seen on their weatherworn faces.

The hungry dwarf shouts to the other one, "I TOLD YOU, Norbus! That was totally a dragon that flew over!"

The gruff one turns to the party and says, "Enough, Dalzyn! Thanks for the heads up, we'll be returning to civilization as soon as we figure out if there is anything left in the temple worth ste... recovering."

Dalzyn pipes up, saying, "Yeah, Norbus, but what about the..."

Norbus cuts him off, "No need to bore these folks with all our troubles, lets let them get on their way. Unless...", Norbus looks at the party. "Um yeah, I got a deal for you. We're just simple miners, and there is some sort of slime monster in the temple. If you could take care of that, we'd be better able to finish our work.  We'd split whatever you find in there, and we'd give you a 50% cut of anything of value we find after it is safe.  Heck, we'll even throw in our sending stones to sweeten the pot.  Waddya say?"

Proserpina shrugs. She looks to the others, "Our task here is completed. But there is no time pressure to arrive at Gnomengarde. What say you?"

Wynn weighs his options and finally declares, "Slime monster versus loot. I think loot wins this one. I'm in."

"I'm in too... How tough can a monster made out of slime possibly be?" Rohani adds jokingly.

She looks at the two dwarves squinting, trying to discern whether they had been telling the truth about the threat and the promised reward.

Insight: 9

Poco thinks the dwarves are acting dishonest. So he takes his companions to the side and does a counter offer.

" I don't mind helping out those in need. But, I think these men should join us. They could lead us to where this slime monster is. After we defeat it,  we can square up with what we find in there immediately. I feel they are not acting trustworthy and are hiding their true intent. What do you all think?"

4 

{I didn't know how to fix the original roll. I had rolled a 11. but had done a +5. It should have been a +3 for a 9 insight check} 

"I think they are a bit on the greedy side, sure, but untrustworthy? I don't know.., it's not like they are forcing us.. they simply don't seem they can handle themselves like us.." mutters Dargrimm constantly, trying to defend the dwarves' character. After some more mumbling, he finishes with " but if you think you can haggle for a better deal, by all means go for it."

Wynn chimes in, "It's been my experience that most stories of monsters guarding treasure are made-up, and just used to scare away thieves. I doubt there's any real threat inside. If there were, I think these two would have left already."

He then turns to Norbus, "Let's see these sending stones, then."

The dwarves seem to be pretty forthright with you.  Norbus says, "I'll come with you, but I'm not fighting that thing and I expect protection!"

Norbus and Dalzyn show you the stones, and demonstrate their use.

Wynn pockets one of the sending stones. "Which one of us would like the other stone?"

Norbus quickly pulls the stones both out of your reach.  “They aren’t yours yet. I’ll be holding onto one and Dalzym the other until the job is done.”

I[[ Im assuming you just misunderstood the deal, that Norbus was just showing that they worked, not handing them over yet. If you intend to steal the stone make a sleight of hand check.]]

Wynn notes where Norbus puts the stones. “Fine. Keep your rocks. A deal is a deal.”