Esvele already standing next to the cage, gives N'ruel a 'look' as he strikes it with his blade, then turns to the guttural voice and raises her shield towards the creature, muting its light with her cloak.

First in sylvan, then if no response in common, she says, "Do you understand me? Why are you caged?" 

To the Sylvan query, the nervous silence continues. After the phrase in common, the guttural voice whispers out from within the cage once more.

"You not ghobleenz! Wkho you are? Ghet me out. Ghobleenz take me. Yes, ghobleenz! Haf you seen dem? Dey want keel!"

A scrawny, dark grey arm tugs at the lower edge of the rotten drape, pulling it slightly ajar. In the dim light, a small, grey face with pointed, almost floppy ears peeks out for a moment, before wincing at the muffled light of the shield. A quick hiss, and the face is gone.

Aerin's eyes go round in surprise.  Was that... a person?  She was not at all certain she'd read anything about such a race.

Arcana 8

"Should we help this fellow?" Aerin asks the others.  "To leave him as he is... well it seem it would be his death."

Esvele shines a little more light on the captive to get a better look... What type of being does she see? 

"If you're a captive, we'll get you out. Why did the goblins capture you? How'd you end up here? 

Esvele's begins to investigate the cage, looking for a locking mechanism. As she does, she calls to the others," What of the whimpering bedroll on the other side?" 

The captive, at first glance, would seem to be almost indistinguishable from the goblins you have seen before. However, as you study him in better light, you notice several differences. His skin is a dark, stony grey, as opposed to the regular greens of a goblin's hide. The head shape is different, like a miniaturized version of an elf's profile. His clothing, though soiled and disheveled, seemed to at one point be of good quality. He wears vest of deep, dark green, woven with an internal design utterly foreign to your knowledge, a ragged pair of soft leather breeches, and some worn boots, all well tailored to his diminutive form.

"Dey found me, in the tunnels." He gestures vaguely towards the floor, still wincing in the light."Dey brought me here - not know wkhere I am. Wkho you? Wkhy such light?"

"I am Aerin and my companions are Esvele, Darastrag and N'Ruel.  We've been requested to investigate the source of attacks on the surface and find a couple of missing hunters," Aerin said politely, as she'd been taught, moving forward and indicating the others in turn.  "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance.  May we ask your name and... perhaps what or who may be over there under the bedroll?"

The shaking under the blankets was marked and entirely suspicious, in Aerin's opinion.  Her paranoia, however, was not so great that she would blast it indiscriminately.  Still, if it was a potential friend or simply innocuous, wouldn't it have come out?  Or perhaps it was this grey skinned follow's captor?

"Yerin, Esh... Es-vel, Dararastog, and N'Ruel? Dis is name not like others. You are drow, are you not?" He eyes the dark elf with deep suspicion.

"Not sure what squirms under covers. Couldn't see and dought I was to be eaten." Along with most of the other eyes in the room, the grey captive looks at the bedroll. 

"I am Tycho FyoNym." He announces, his voice lilting in an almost reverently sing-songy way. Seeing no look of recognition on the faces of his rescuers, Tycho cocks his head slightly to the side. "Of the Durpeynarid." Seeing again no clear recognition, he completes his explanation. "Many tunnels away." He finishes, his ears drooping dejectedly. 

Still looking for a way to open the cage, Esvele notices the goblin's ears dropping and offers, "I'm sorry - I'm not very familiar with the local goblin clans. You do have a pleasant singing voice."

She continues, "While I'm trying to figure out how to open up this cage, you think you all can figure out what's under those covers?"

If Esvele cannot figure out how to easily open up the cage, she'll ask Tycho to step to the other side of the cage and smash the lock off with her war hammer.

"Let me help with the lock.  Perhaps N'Ruel can too?"

Aerin extends the thieves' tools to her companion and examines the lock, ready to help.

N'ruel furrows his brow at the caged creature. "What do you know of where I am from," he snaps. He takes the tools from Aerin and waits for a reply from the goblin before attempting opening the cage. 

Tycho snorts in derision at being called a goblin. "I am not ghobleen! I am svirnefblin! And I know!" Tycho glares at N'ruel. "Yes, I know of de great city of your people."

Tycho chuckles, a sound not unlike gravel being thrown and mixed together. "But you are wid friends of the surface, no? You are against your people." Tycho glances around at the group, particularly eyeing the lockpick in N'ruel's hands before replying.

"Unless dey are your slaves?"

"All right, I'm done waiting. He needs to come out."

Esvele smashes the cage (// lock, door, whatever it may be //) to get the little gnome out.

As she's doing so, "Svirnefblin? Never heard of them. Do you have any surface cousins?" The beat of her words matches the swings of her hammer.

As she finishes, she says, "We're no ones slaves."

Darastrag looks back and forth between the speakers, listening. "The strong protect the weak. The weak serve the strong. In this way, the Khecuala keep peace in our lands and make prosperity for all."