Seeing the drunkard become a little hostile, Anearis attempted to ease the tension with some diplomacy.

 ‘’Please. There is no need for this. Forgive my tall friend. We are in a hurry to meet with one known as the Old Man. We will leave your home with haste if you know where we can find him. If you do not know this person, we will let you be and take our leave all the same.’’

He tried to appear the least threatening as possible while saying this.

He kept his fists up as he waved in placed, but turned towards Anearis, again squinting into the darkness, past where the light from his lantern could reach.

"Then you can jus' go back the way you came." The man raised his voice, though not quite to the degree as one would consider to be yelling.

Uthal looks down at him. "Move, or you will be moved."

"In life, oftentimes looking backwards tends to be counterproductive," Ura says.  "That happens to be the case here.  And I doubt you own the entirety of this sewage system.  So if you'll allow us to pass, we'll leave you to your joys and move out of your abode.  Heck, if this doesn't come to blows, we'll even do it respectfully," she adds, her best attempts a being diplomatic.  Clearly, Ura was made to be the speaker of the group, since Austin wasn't taking any issue with her, Uthal, or Anaeris's combined attempts at persuading the man to stand down at all.

"Oh get over yourself." Austin says walking around the corner. "We couldn't get here unless we were suppose to be here, so get out of the way before you get yourself hurt. We have a meeting to get to and your boss is only going to get upset with you, likely more than he already will be for your useless ability to keep watch, if you delay us any longer." She waves the others along. "Let's go."

8

 A light, but sharp ring sound echoed off the stone of the tunnel walls, as blades approximately 8 inches long appeared, pertruding from the wrist of the man's long-armed jacket.

Shifting his stance to one more aggressive than the otherwise half-hearted fist shaking, he pointed one blade towards Uthal being the closest to him and the other towards Austin as she began to advance. The wobbling attempt to stay on his feet was replaced by a rock steady stillness and the slurred speech by words of complete clarity.

"If you're meant to be here, then you wouldn't mind waiting for someone to come confirm that. Otherwise, I'll consider you the very spies of which we were warned early this eve."

"Send someone to confirm it." Austin says, her cool eyes intent on the man. She is not one bit surprised by the change in the man's stance. "Now quite fooling around." She leans her shoulder against a wall, holding his eyes as she prepares to wait.

Ura's eyebrows rise - not so much from the man's sudden change, but from the news of spies.  "What?  Spies?  Damn it!  Can't we ever be first anywhere?" Ura complains with a groan.  She waves her hand, and armors up with some mage armor with a soft sigh.

While members of the party eased themselves, the evidently-sober man they had ran into held steadfast. Blades at the ready, he eyed the group suspiciously. "We received word that the Emperor might be sending someone into this tunnels tonight."

Behind the man, the tunnel continued on straight, until losing sight completely into the darkness. However approximately 25 feet from their location, a second side tunnel joined on the wall. It was from behind the corner into this other tunnel that Uthal heard a sudden stiffled giggle.

"Is that a standard sort of shakedown that the Emperor puts out on the regular, or is this a special occasion?" Ura asks the man bluntly.

"The Emperor is more open with his intentions. He has the power to be. He's only more secretive over the past month or so, since his Cathaanian friends arrived. Your guess is as good as mine. If you are one of his spies, perhaps you could enlighten me. If not why dont you tell me what you're really doing here then?"

Uthal stares down at him. "Does a goliath in priest robes, a couple of elves, and a woman in heavy armor really scream secret spies to you? Use that tiny skull of yours for more than just holding up your hair. Nik, Nak, if that's you back there, I'm going to break one of your knees if this goes poorly. I'll let you decide which knee it is, because I'm nice like that."

He turned his head up to Uthal, at the insult. "I'd say the same to you, but it appears you head has already failed you there as well." The retort had the effect of forcing another round of muffled laughter, only slightly louder, but enough the the man and Ura both heard it this time as well.

In one swift motion, the man turned from the group and threw a knife at a tiny lump at the floor's edge where the tunnels met, illiciting a tiny shriek from the location.

He had finally let go of the tense stance he had when not allowing the group to proceed further, but remained in place. He now faced the same direction of the party, waiting, but replied further to Uthal. "A mixed group of individuals that the Emperor would never associate himself with, who wish the gain entrance into the workings of the last resistance force that still challenges him? That's exactly what would scream spies to me."

While he spoke, two familiar little frames stepped out of the side tunnel and began walking towards them, one now with a knife still sticking out of the toe-edge of his boot.

"Smells like someone stepped in shite!" Nik announced with a smile one his face, sending Nack once again into laughter. Nack left the knife in his boot until the pair was closer. At which point rather than kneel down to remove it, Nack stood on one foot hopping around and falling against the wall several times to remove the knife by bringing it up to him.

The blades sticking out of the potetntial half-elf's sleeves retracted and he grabbed Nik with both hands, by the collar; knocking Nack on his butt in the process, as he had not yet put his foot back on the ground. "The Old Man may tolerate your shenanigans because you're his sons, but I will not. I was wary of your warning, that the two of you would know of spies attempting to move this this tunnel tonight, but your childish antics have led me to now trust their word over yours." He said, nodding his head back toward the party.

Nik just smiled and began flailing his hands to slap at the hands holding him, making an even bigger joke out of the situation, until he let go. "We jus had bad information. We did'n know they'd come through 'ere."

Nack put his hands on his hips and turned towards Uthal. "Biggin's! I'd hug ya, but no idea what you been steppin' in down 'ere." The party had seen smugness displayed by the pair of dwarfs on more than one occasion, but the proud smile they wore at this very moment was bar far the most smug they'd ever seen. "Yous all have trouble findin' the place?"

A lot of things suddenly made more sense to Anearis. He sighed in a mixture of relief and exasperation.

"No thanks to you two. Are you not able to take anything seriously? It is the dwarven and Goliath ladies you sent to bring us here that we should thank."

He turned his attention towards the human guarding the tunnels. 

"Now that this has been cleared up, may we pass to meet the Old Man?"

"Yes. I consider this confirmation then." The half-elf said with a sigh. "If you do turn out to be spies though, I take solace in knowing these two would be in close proximity, and likely die first." He said it stiffly, giving no impression of it necessarily being a joke.

"Nah, they love us! Jus like you, Lupin." 

The man, which the party heard Nik call 'Lupin' proceeded to retrieve the clay bottle of liquor that he had when the party first found him. Holding the bottle by the neck, he then smashed the thing on Nik's head. It broke fairly easily and the contents poured down the dwarf's head and face.

"Joke's on you. Free drink." Nik stuck out his tongue to catch the liquid dripping down his face . "It's water." Lupin replied, still keeping with the stiff seriousness of his expression. Nack laughed though "Gave ya a baff, Nik."

The smugness finally left Nik's face as it turned sour to the remark and realization. "Hmmphf. Fine, well yous ready?" Nik addressed the party.

"If things do go badly, I can guarantee my first strike will be at those two." Austin says with a grim look at the dwarf brothers. She pushed off the wall and gave a sigh. "Let us be on with this, we have wasted enough time as it is." She looked to the dwarf brothers. "No more fooling around. Take us to your father now if you please."

Uthal kicks some of the muck on his legs onto the two brothers. "Is your boss anything like these two? Because if he is then I think it's best that we leave now so we don't end up dead from some stupid jape."

Lupin sighed. "No, but...you'll notice some 'similarities'." Pushing past the pair of dwarfs, Lupin left the party. As he turned the corner, he pointed towards Ura, and she heard a message in her head.

 "Alright then, let's go." Nik turned, with Nack in tow and headed down the straight tunnel, rather than taking the side one. Much like being guided by the female dwarf and goliath, earlier, the party was taken through a series of twists and turns, until eventually finding themselves at another dead-end. And just like the last dead-end, it could be pushed open...potentially. Nik felt around until supposedly finding the spot he was looking for and he and Nack began pushing. The wall didn't move, so both dwarfs in unison stopped and looked up at Uthal with pleading eyes.

Ura passes on Lupin's warning to the others:  "Don't let tweedle dee and tweedle dum out of your sight.  Lupin just warned me that there are things down here that even he's not sure of.  And I don't mean spies."  She sighs.  "Probably that less look out for yourselves and more make sure the Old Man's boys don't get killed down here."

Uthal looks the wall over to see if this is another trick that the two are trying to pull. 

Investigation: 14 or Perception: 13