"time to head down, I suppose."

"Yes, now that we have the gloves we can retrieve the anvil."

Zarbyn secures the battle axe and goes along with the others as they head for the anvil.

"Let's not tarry here for too long."

Lira gives a small smile as they secure the gloves, taking the lead to check for traps as they move towards the anvil.

Perception: 9

The group moves back into the large 3 level rectangular chamber where the demon attacked them. Mindful of the two pit traps marked on the map, they climb to the highest level of the chamber (10 feet higher.) A passage 20 feet wide extends forward into the darkness. 
On the map, Lira notes what she thinks are two crossbows (?trap?) around the corner. After this is where the Anvil should be located. (Far northeast of map). Party is at the blue arrow on map below. Full map given to you on discord and in earlier posts.

Lira creeps over to the corner and peers around cautiously, trying to spot the crossbows indicated on the map.

Perception: nat 1 + 6 -.-;;

Noticing Lira creeping and peering Zarbyn follows close behind her, mimicking her actions and whispers, "What is it? More Kobolds?"

As Lira creeps to the edge,  she sees it drops down on the other side to a 20x30 platform. Then, it appears to drop down into the darkness below. 

She sits there in the silence, but then, she hears something strange.

She hears someone coughing in the darkness below. "Cough.....houf...houf...."

"There's supposed to be some kind of crossbow trap around here, but...ugh, I can't concentrate with this heat." The rogue sighs, wiping sweat from her brow. It is then she hears the coughing from below and freezes (figuratively), looking to Zarbyn. "Did you hear that?"

Morric will wait until its safe to proceed, still pretty fired up about his fancy digs…he never had anything this nice before, except for goblin eater.

Morric loves different traps. Finds them interesting how different they are from people to people. Morric only knows how to make simple hunting traps or how to use the metal bear traps. The venerable snare is his go to when hunting.

From the dark below,

"Hey Pip, did you find any water yet?"

A different voice,

"Nah Bramble, there's nothin here except a cliff and the room with the mushrooms and the voice." The sound of someone throwing up.

"Well, if we don't get out of here, we both are gonna die." (Sound of hacking and coughing)

"Saya said to stay here and I don't want to make her cross. Do you?"

"No way, she'll skin us alive and feed us to a giant mantis."

From the talking the group figures they are at the bottom, near the crossbow area.

(Vydar (120 darkvision)

Zarbyn whispers just loud enough for everyone in the party to hear, "Sounds like a few more are lying in wait ahead. Should we plan to take them unawares?"

More coughing comes from below.  They don’t sound well, maybe sick.

Vydar takes the scroll and reads it over. As soon as he reads the name, he knows exactly what the scroll is for.... the ingredients only solidify his conclusion. He fights off the urge to immediately rip it to shreds. Amdaeg's speaking to him helping break him out of that thought. 

"It's the instructions to make the cursed sword the dwarf mentioned... it... one of the components is a Claw of Myurr." He replies, voice quivering slightly from anger and a hint of fear. "We should... we should burn this." He looks at the others. "The only possibly good thing i can note from this is a potential way to safely handle the daggers... and maybe the relics. Other than that we should play it safe and destroy this."

Once the group continues on, he moves forward with the hat equipped. "I'll find it Lira." He says moving towards the suspected area. He also freezes when hearing the voices. "Must be kobolds." He says lowering his voice. He squints into the darkness. "Wait, these aren't Kobolds. They look like gnomes."

He glances at Zarbyn. "I'm not sure if disarming the trap will alert them of our presence. It depends on how quietly we could do it. Though we could wait for them to come up this way. Maybe they will trigger the trap, then we could deal with the rest."

"Laying in wait?" Lev says, stepping up to Zarbyn and Lira. "Sounds to me like they are unwell." He taps the shaft of his glaive with one finger, brow farrowed as he ponders the situation. His gut tells him that sick or not if this is the enemy they should take them by surprise and end them, but at the same time... "Perhaps we should scout this out, see what's really going on with them. If they are wounded then we know they triggered a trap, but if they are sick..." He thinks for a moment, one of them mentioned a room with mushrooms. What if that has something to do with their current condition? He lets out a quiet breath, looking to Vydar as he says they could wait for them to come this way, "That is also a descent idea, though it sounds like these are waiting for someone, I'd rather deal with the threat before it multiplies, if it is a threat at all."

More coughing and vomiting from the gnomes below. 

"Im lighting my torch so she can find us."

“Well, we can’t climb that cliff wall and can’t go back in the tunnel. Maybe she got eaten.”

”stop talking like that. She’s a tough woman.”

”you like her don’t ya Bram?”

”Pip, I ain’t gonna ask yer sister to make me oxtail stew.”

”Hey, you hear that?”

”don’t listen to it, or your gonna get burned.”

"Surprising enemies is a good strategy, but we cannot be certain they are enemies. There must be some way to determine their intent. They seem as uncertain as us."

Iólinder will say a quiet prayer to Telak and scan the area for any signs that would be helpful. 

Perception 11 (with guidance)

(They seem to be waiting for Saya to return. They are clearly ill. The group is at least 60 feet above the two gnomes and there is no easy way down)

"Gnomes?"

Zarbyn tries to think of something that would resolve this small dilemma.

"Aren't gnomes usually friendly? I could send Twiggy down, while invisible, and try to determine if they are enemies?"

"I could alone, to see how they react. And the rest of you could mounta surprise attack if needed. We should act quickly though."