Zeke scowls at the spider, but carefully makes his way back to the relative safety of the party.

'Seems those spiders are keeping a close eye on us and don't want us wandering too far.  We should move soon, not sure how long we'll be safe here.'

"Almost ready to go. Just one more thing."

Arvel sits down next to Yeemik.

"Yeemik. I owe you an apology. If it weren't for my slip up back there, your people wouldn't be in danger from the Spider. For that, I am very sorry. I just want you to know that, if you do choose to help us, it won't be through deception or through threat or debt. It will be because we are your allies. Will you help us?"

The charlatan offers the goblin his hand to shake and to help him to his feet.

Ethan nods to Zeke, as he finishes making some last minute adjustments to his Fire Caster.

There appears to be a device attached to the top of the Fire Caster, above the handle. Wires can be seen snaking down the handle to some short spikes sticking out of the bottom of the handle. The handle is wrapped in leather to protect the hand from the wires running underneath.

Ethan puts the Fire Caster in its holster and comes over to Zeke, ready to move out when everyone else is.

His wings out and pulled up to his full height, the tiefling walks over to the trio of goblins and stares down at them.   

'My friend here has offered you our protection. That is a promise I take very seriously.  I will stand between you and your foes for as long as you fight at our side'

A curt nod and the barbarian turns on his heel and stalks off to continue prowling the perimeter of their groups little encampment.

Elra would have followed Arvel over, intent on making sure Yeemik was recovering. "I don't know much about goblins," she admits. "But it seems to me like you all are just like everyone else, having good and bad... you seem like the good kind. And if you are going to keep this castle..." she trails off in thought.

Fae wouldn't really have much to say and would just stand with the others in support as they spoke with the goblins. With Zeke's return and mentioning the spiders, she would scan the area every once and a while. She'll send Edgar out to scout from the skies in support of Zeke's perimeter check, ready as she can be for what the day holds for them.

Yeemik looks at Zeke and says "you mean we'll protect you."  "He told most of these spiders not to attack us, see."  Yeemik gestures to the other goblins.  He then puts his head down, sighs, and looks up at the other goblins.  "Pretty sure this one tricked me and stole my dagger when we met, but I did bite off his friend's finger so I guess we can call it even.  'Least they haven't hurt us, since we left Klarg's cave, at least.  I guess I like 'em betta than the Spider or even King Grol."

Yeemik looks at Arvel.  "Ok look boss, there's all kinds-a nasty things in there.  The King's got this big weird cat thing."  Fraac shivers a bit and adds "weird thing's got six legs, and three tails!"   Nature or History check to identify this creature in character (medium difficulty)

Yeemik continues "and Lhupo's got that nasty worm that looks like a rock when it aint movin'."  "If we can talk to the other goblins before the big guy here starts murderin' everybody, maybe Lhupo will tell it not to attack you." Nature or History check to identify this creature in character (medium difficulty)

Fraac jumps in and says "tell em 'bout the bear, ah, owl, ah, ...thing, too."  Yeemik responds "oh, right."  "Yeah they got him trapped in one of the towers.  The King seems to like pokin' at em." Nature or History check to identify this creature in character (easy difficulty)

"Ah, what else..." remarks Yeemik.  "We'll go in under the tower thats fallin' down on the other side, maybe find Lhupo there.  Oh, if you get near the front door, don't go down the middle of the hallway.  You'll regret it.  And don't forget, Targor's gonna come back not long after dark with the other hobgoblins and his wargs.  ...And then the dragon."  Fraac shivers again and adds "I aint goin' anywhere near that dragon just to save Lhupo and help ya new friends, Yeemik."

Elra thinks back to long night after curfew reading books she probably wasnt supposed to be reading, racking her brain for any information that might match what the goblins offered up.

 Regardless of what she does remember, she approaches Fae and quietly says. "Maybe we should give him his dagger back? Show of good faith?"

While the first creature doesn't sound familiar at all to the well studied Elra, she is easily able to identify a Grick from some reading she had done on odd creatures when the goblins mention a worm that can look like stone.

She is also quite certain most people would have heard of an owlbear before.

Tarja tries to remember if she's seen or heard of those in her travels: 646.

(OOC: We already gave him back the dagger.)

Fae would also listen intently to the goblins to see if she could recall what they were talking about. She'd pull out her journal to note down the descriptions and making sketches.

Nature: 12 | 14 | 22

The wizard would look to Elra, "I returned the dagger during the fight along with my own."

Ethan thinks about the descriptions of the creatures the group will likely face.

Fraac pulls out Yeemik's dagger and says "oh, yeah, you lost this when you...ah...when the Spider...ah....when you got knocked out."

Tarja is familiar with what an owl bear is but has actually found any sightings to be very rare in her territory.

Fae immediately recognizes the description of a Displacer Beast from her readings.  She is also fairly certain that the other creature is a Grick, a wormlike creature that can disguise itself as stone, and she of course knows the last to be an owl bear.

Ethan's crafting obsession has somehow still led him to reading a good deal about both the Displacer Beast and the extremely aggressive Owl Bear.

Yeemik grabs a twig and starts drawing in the dirt.  "Here, we'll go in on the far side where the walls have crumbled.  Nobody uses that way.  The King uses this tower over here and has your friend in there with him, and the owlbear is locked up over here.  Oh, and don't go down this middle hall or BOOM!  You guys will be flat!" 

Ethan pulls at his collar and swallows hard as he realise what two of the creature probably are.

"Oh, heh, um..."

Ethan thinks some more,

"Um, you say the big owl creature is trapped and they torment it?"

Ethan looks at the others,

"I think that's an Owl Bear, we learned about them, as it is believed they are a magical hybrid and if we could ever relearn what magic was used to create them...well that would be powerful knowledge."

"Anyway, ah, according to what I read, they are very aggressive creatures, maybe we could free it and direct it at the King fellow?"

"Also, if that first creature is what I think it is, um, we could have a hard fight on our hands, if we have to take on all of them together..."

Ethan swallows audibly again.

"Flat? Like an explosion or something?" Elra asks.

Fraac just says "big rocks" and smashes his horizontal palms together.

"Ah," Elra nods. "Is there anything else we should know?"

Well, it'll be good to go in with a plan! Go in on the far side. Get Gundren out from Grol, deal with Grol. Free the owlbear, poor thing must be having a terrible time in there...

"So why can't we use the same entrance as you and head to Grol immediately, ignoring the other challenges?"