The kobold's eyes widen when Hemlock tells him that Jonah was forced by magic to act against his own will. "To control another's mind is the greatest evil. This is the philosophy of our clan, and the teaching of Hamza. We do not judge a person by who they are made to work for, only by their own will and actions."

When the others arrive, Hássan's eyes glow blue along with the gem, and he is silent for several seconds. The glow fades from his eyes and he looks up at you all. "Welcome, Reformer, Champion, Protector. Hamza wishes to meet you and speak with you, but there will be three tests along the way. One of your judgement, one of your cleverness, and one of battle. You must come now, or lose this chance. We can take the dwarf, and ensure that she is not harmed. Do you accept this invitation?" Two kobolds emerge from the darkness of the mine, holding manacles and a rope.

The dwarf draped over Lam's shoulders begins to stir. She will probably wake up and start to panic very soon. The rest of the HMC people have continued north along the road, and are now out of sight.

Hemlock nods. "I have already given my answer. What say you all?", he asks of the other three.

"There is magic at play here, but I do not believe their leader, Hamza, means us direct harm. We will learn a lot from accepting the invitation", he says, trying to allay any fears they might have.

Sha-gravis looks Hássan in the eyes, “I accept the invitation.”  As Sha looks back towards Hemlock he chuffs a little, “Sorry about earlier you were the nicest looking squirrel I’ve ever seen.”  If the dwarven woman looks awake enough, “Det er ikke min hensigt, at du forbliver gidsel længere, så vi kan forblive i sikkerhed.”  Dwarven

Saoirse greets the strange looking blue-eyed kobold and looks unsure for a moment. Hamza? Tests? What is this all about? It was definitely not what she expected to find in a mine, but ... not necessarily bad? Just... unexpected. She glances the dwarf as soon as she starts stirring, but Sha looks to have that particular situation under control and the kobold looks sincere enough when he says that she will not be harmed. So, when Hemlock encourages them to accept, she finally nods and says:

- I accept your invitation, too.

Lam has no idea what to make of any of the kobold’s words, but the uncertainty on his face makes way for determination when Hemlock endorses the Kobold’s plan. Seeing all his friends agree, he is ready for some tests- especially the one of battle. He turns to the two kobolds who have just emerged. He says, “Please keep her safe. Promise,” and is ready to gently turn the guard over to them if they seem to agree. Then he turns back to the one that seems to know Hemlock and says, “I accept.”

The guard answers Sha in Dwarven: "Bare lad mig være! Jeg fortæller ingen at i er her, eller at i arbejder med Kobolderne! Give mig slip, og jeg siger ingenting om dette!" The kobolds emerging from the cave slap the manacles on her and hold her, and she looks around at you all in fear.

Hássan nods at each of you as you say that you accept, and gestures towards the dim tunnel. He waits patiently for you to decide what to do about the dwarf.

Hemlock smiles at Sha-Gravis as he apologises, not really sure what it was for. He also looks more than a little confused about the dwarf's presence, and is unable to understand what they and Sha-Gravis are saying. He does spot the look of fear though.

"I am sorry I have no idea what you are saying, or why you are here", he says to the dwarf. "I am sure my companions have good reason though", he adds, hoping the dwarf can understand.

"I am ready to proceed".

"I said that if you all let me go I'll keep your secrets! I won't tell anyone you're working with the kobolds! Please!" The kobolds begin to drag the dwarven guard deeper into the mine.

Hássan begins walking into the mine, beckoning you along. He looks freshly dismayed at each of the fallen companions he passes, and holds the glowing stone tight against his chest. A faint glow from other stones regularly spaced along the walls keeps the mine very dimly lit. Your eyes adjust to the change, some more quickly and thoroughly than others.

https://www.owlbear.app/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP

“Working with the Kobolds?”, Hemlock repeats. “Where did you get that idea?”.

”We are merely talking with them and trying to remain on friendly terms, which is exactly what your master wants to do. He really does have the wrong idea about us”, he says to the dwarf.

”Perhaps some time locked up as we were will grant you the chance to reflect and gain some perspective”, he concludes as the dwarf is taken away.

Saoirse nods at what Hemlock has said and adds:

- I'm sorry, but we are not in a position right now where we can trust that statement. And I know you don't trust us either, but please, consider: if we were the murderous monsters your people believe us to be, you wouldn't be breathing right now. Instead, we have chosen not to hurt you and you will be kept safe here only until we have finished meeting the inhabitants of this mine. Not any minute longer. You will be released afterwards and you will to return to your companions safely and unharmed. 

"Curses upon you if you lie. Stop dragging me, small brutes! I can walk for myself. Tell them, interpreter!"

"تقول أنها ستمشي بنفسها."

The kobolds dragging her stop, and help her to turn around so that she can comfortably walk instead, although there are still leading her by her bound and cuffed hands. They look tired, and not pleased with this particular task, but set and determined.

Hássan looks at you all and says "I can see why Hamza likes you, if all you say is true. Follow me to your first test, one of cleverness." He walks through the tunnels leading you by a few steps. The walk are bare or rugged stone, cut by a mixture of hand tools and occasional blasting powder. The stone is mostly granite, with some various other substances or veins of iron or copper here and there. The glowing stones look like some quartz crystal growing naturally from out of the walls, and are spaced regularly enough for Saoirse, Lam, and Sha to see clearly, although it is still quite dim to Hemlock's eyes. Here and there is a piece of abandoned mining equipment, and you quickly branch off away from where Samantha was dragged, or where the dwarf is being led.

When he is about to enter another chamber, the gem in his arms glows blue again for a moment, and he turns to you all. "Hamza says this is the point of no return. You may leave now, but once you are shown what this test is, she can not trust you to leave without speaking to her first, and you can not speak with her until you have accomplished all three tests. Do you still wish to continue?

https://www.owlbear.app/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP

The fire genasi is getting nervous, there's no denying that. But she's not one to go back on a word given lightly, even when confronted with uncertainty. So she shares a look with her companions and thinks that if they made it this far together, if they have trusted what they have seen in this mines so far, then there's no reason to back down. So she anwers plainly:

- Yes.  

Hemlock ignores the dwarf's curse and follows Hássan, briefly leaning down to pick up the sword he spotted lying on the ground. Looking to Hássan, he simply says, "I hope you don't mind". If Hássan does mind, he will put it back down, otherwise he carries it much like you would a walking stick, holding the hilt with the blade pointed down.

As he walks and it becomes difficult to see, he will conjure his own light.

When asked if they would continue, he replies, "Of course, the stars have guided me this far, I would see what they will reveal".

"I will continue and look forward to meeting Hamza, thank you Hássan."  Sha is intrigued by all this mysterious testing, naturally curious and perfectly comfortable in the dim light.  He gives a slight bow to their guide.  He then readies Alptraum in his paw and gives a little shake of his shield.

Lam is relieved to see the dwarf go along willingly and hopes that the kobolds are as willing to keep their word as his friends are. He finds, strangely, that he does trust the kobolds, even though they have just met. In Lam’s eyes are a new sense of determination, as a test is a perfect way to prove his worth to these folks. He says, “Yes,” and is ready to go along with whatever happens next.

Hássan gestures into the chamber ahead. "On a table in the middle of this room, there is a sheet of paper we recovered from the sorceress in secret yesterday, before they realized that they were so close to our territory. Hamza believes that it describes an artefact of the utmost importance, but it is written in code. Please, learn what you can from it."

As you enter the chamber, you see some evidence that HMC had been excavating in here just the day before. In the middle of the room, there is a stone platform at table height, with a sheet of paper on it (you can see the image in Owlbear), and at the far end of the room there seems to be a pile of golden ore,.  

Hemlock wanders across to the table and looks down at the paper, frowning.

"If you had not told me it was a code, I would have assumed it was the writing of the language of your people, Hássan", he says before looking around a the others.

"I suppose if these are words, and the symbols are letters, we just have to work out a few to get us started. "Do you see these apostrophes? The letter that follows would have to be an 's', right?".

"And here, a single letter that proceeds a word with an apostrophe, would have to be an 'a'", he says starting to try and figure it out.

He scratches his head. "I admit we had no use for codes such as this at home, but this is intriguing. Maybe the stars can light your way to further the answer, Saoirse", he adds, helping her to focus on the problem.

Saoirse too looks at the paper, not feeling specially bright as she just doesn't seem to understand a single part of the code. When Hemlock points out about the apostrophes she says:

- Oh, that is true. And this four simbols that go before that " 's" appear a lot of times in this text. One, two.... up to eight times. I wonder what that word is?

As they are all thinking, Lam comes forth and says:

- Those boxes. Look like parts of ... grid? 

- A grid...? Now that you mention it ... - the genasi unseathes her dagger uses it to draw a square on the ground, dividing it with two vertical and two horizontal lines - Something like this?

- No. Wait. - and the bugbear "erases" the outer square, leaving only the central lines - It has to be open. Look. Some boxes don't have all lines. Only center box has four lines.

- Oh you're totally right. So perhaps the code is about dividing the letters into parts of the grid, and this is why the shape of the boxes are repeated, but sometimes they are empty, and sometimes they have a dot, and other times two?

- Hm. Yes.

With that idea on mind, the four of them begin thinking on how to sort the letters and afterwards, how to translate the code. Lam is the quickest translating and beggins mumbling:

- "The ... Crown... of ... Divine..."

Wow Sha is totally stuck.  He automatically considers this a foreign language and knows enough linguistics to be overwhelmed by the thought of learning one on the spot... 

As Lam begins puzzling out the key and solving the phrase, Sha stops pacing and with his jaw hanging open stares in amazement at Lam.  Speechless.

Lam speaks the message aloud slowly as he translates, based on the letter positioning that his friends slowly figure out. He makes a lot of mistakes in translation at first: “It not a king’s place to do… cattle… or. Um. No. It is not a king’s place to do battle.”

As he speaks, he gets faster as he begins to recognize whole words. The word “king” appears often enough that he begins to know it by sight. Lam finds the cipher makes a surprising sort of sense, and starts to feel a bit more confident as he reads.

He reads the full message:

“The Crown of Divine Right can make the meekest commoner king, but it is not a king’s place to do battle.

A king speaks the truth, and so all will know the king’s words to be true. A king’s orders are obeyed without question, and not forgotten, and so all who hear will obey. Long live the king, your commoner’s prayer, is now heard. The king will live long.

This Holy Relic is the Celestial One’s gift to your Pious King and his Noble People.”

He stands taller as he looks at his friends who helped point to the solution and says, “That is the end. Thank you for your help.”

Then after a moment, he asks everyone: “What does it mean?” He is pretty sure he has heard talk of the Crown of Divine Right before in the past, but most of the other words are unfamiliar to him. As happy as he is to figure out the translation, he doesn’t have the foggiest idea what comes next.