The stone wall seemed a solid block, without any necessarily hidden panels, switches, or locks. As best as Uthal could tell, it was all a matter of knowing of the wall/door's existence and placing a considerable amount of force in just the right place. As far as he could tell, there was no reason, yet, to think the dwarfs were pushing the wrong place, but that they just weren't doing so with enough strength.

Uthal gives the door a shove with one hand. 

Athletics: 14

While only pushing with one hand, Uthal had to put his full weight behind the effort. Nevertheless, the dwarfs stared in admiration of the goliath, as he managed to push the wall/door open. As soon as even the thinnest seam of a crack appeared, the noise from the other side met the party's ears. Random instruments being strummed, the clatter of coin, cheering and conversation.

The opening led to a 'throne room' of sorts; described as such only due to the long open walkway at the room's center and a large chair upon a platform at the far end. It retained the 'solid stone' look of the tunnels but was greater in all directions with rows of columns supporting it throughout the room.

The rest of the room however more strongly resembled a rough tavern. Various crates and barrels stacked against the walls, a multitude of large round wooden tables at which a variety of characters sat drinking, gambling, and trading everything from jewelry to weapons to even a cage-crate of what looked to be a half-dozen chickens. In one corner, a table was turned on its side with rings painted upon it to resemble a target. A few individuals were taking turns throwing knives and axes at it. Papers, dishes and small common house hold items, both broken and intact, littered the floor.

Upon the 'throne' at the other end of this room was the Old Man, recognizable from the wanted poster that the geoup had seen earlier that day. He looked up, drink in hand, as Nik and Nack approached. "Oy, ya bringin' in visitors, boys? Must be tha ones ya sent shorty and baldy fer. An' look at that one. Nother big bastard." The Old Man directing the comment about the obvious size onservation towards Uthal.

"I assume that yous brought tribute if ya gon' request an audience wit me."

Nik and Nack looked on at the Old Man, after he mentioned tribute. A few minutes passed, and with nothing further being said by the geoup, Nik leaned towards them. Keeping himself looking forward, he spoke out of the corner of his mouth, "He's talkin to yous all." Subtly pointing towards a small stack of barrels off to one side of the room, he said, "We had dem brought in. All yous gotta do is give it to him as a showa tribute."

Nack then leaned towards Nik and spoke in the same hushed manner, "What's a 'tribute'?"

"Looks like your sons brought the barrles in already." Austin speaks up, waving a hand to the stack of barrels. "Please accept them as our gift to you."

Uthal goes and picks one up, bringing it over and placing it before the 'Old Man.'

Following in Uthal’s footsteps, Anearis will go over to the barrels and bring one over to the Old Man, offering a small bow afterwards.

"Talenth wine. Your favorite." Nik said proudly, as Uthal and Anearis had moved to get the barrels.

When Uthal and Anearis lifted the barrels, they both found them to be considerably lighter than anticipated; almost to the feeling that the barrels were nothing more than the weight of the wood itself, and nothing else.

Uthal grunts. "Which someone has either stolen or drunk." He says, looking pointedly at the dwarven brothers.

The Old Man steps down from the throne and approaches the barrel, prying the tap cork from one. Ignoring Uthal's demand for answers from Nik and Nack, he himself begins accusatory questions. "Ya bring nuffin for tribute? Insult me in ma own house?" He looks to the entire party.

Anearis watched the scene and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Somehow, they should have known that Nik and Nak couldn’t be trusted with their tribute to the Old Man. 

"These casks were meant to be our tribute, and they were full when last we had them. Then your sons offered to bring them here with them.". He glared at the two bumbling dwarfs. "I feel like certain people owe us a very convincing explanation."

Austin just sighs and raises an eyebrow at the dwarf brothers. "Best be fessing up boys." She informs them.

"Biggins did it." Nack quickly said, before falling over himself, as he scurried around Nik to place his brother between Uthal and himself. Nack moved rather clumsily, but managed to do what he seemed to set out to, though once positioned, he did fall to the ground completely. While Nack tried to pass the blame, Nik tried a different recourse.

Nik crossed his arms and furrowed his brow, staring the Old Man down. "That's right you Old Shite! Barrels and barrels of talenth wine, full ta tha brim. It was a long trip though an me n Nack were thirsty. So fer tribute, we bring ya the same as you given us over the years: not a damn thing!"

The Old Man stepped towards Nik, matching his glare. With eyes looked he steadily closed the distance until the two dwarfs now stood only inches from each other. Nack, still on the floor, sat up right, gazing up at the two, awestruck.

The Old Man burst out laughing, hard. His face twists and his eyes shut, while he holds his sides. Nik too breaks out in a laughter, the two attempting to speak in between struggled breaths.

"Not a damn thing? Empty wine barrels?" The Old Man managed out. Nik then accompanied that with "Mostly Nack. Hes been drunk on it the whole time." They both turned to Nack and the Old Man lightly pushed against Nack's chest, causing Nack to fall back to the floor. This led to the Old Man and Nik roar again with laughter.

"An' they had no idea?" The Old Man asked, waving a finger pointed towards members of the party. "Nah, we made sure ta load the horses each morning n just switch out our own empty barrels each time." "Don't say much fer my confidence in em, if they did'n know." The laughter continued, eventually ending in a hug between the two, and then Nack as well, even though he sorely hesitated for obcious reasons of having been left out of the end joke. It even led to the Old Man having to wipe tears from his face due to the extreme laughing fits. 

"I would say the opposit." Austin speaks up,though a smile of amusement curls one side of her mouth. "Doesn't really make me feel like this has been worth our time." She locks eyes with the most-sober of the dwarf brothers. "You said we needed to bring tribute, and you suggested the barrels. We let you prove your loyalty and usefulness to us as you took care of those barrels and got us here." She hsakes her head then and shrugs. "I'd say if you two are such that cannot even be trusted with such a simple task, and not need to be watched to make sure you are doing it correctly, then I don't feel this meeting is going to be of any use to us at all. Please just show me the way out and I'll take my leave now. I am not sure I want to have aid from anyone associated with two who would backstab those they travelw ith."

Uthal glares at them. "I'm also concerned that Nack is just as useful completely plastered as he is sober, which is to say, not at all. Now, boys, who's knee am I breaking? Decide quick like."

"Why'nch you git off ya big horse?" Nack growled at Austin and Uthal, as he attempted to force himself up off the ground. "Nack..." Nik said shaking his head lightly.

While the mispoken idiom may have lost some of its effect coming from the inebriated dim-wit; its meaning still went through, and was supported by Nik, responding to the scolding from the two party members. Nik's jovial laughing had faded now, and his face bore agitation. 

"Girlie, we got nuffin to prove to you. You too, biggins." Nik thrust his plump dwarf index finger in the direction of both. "Yous all are the ones in need of help. I said I could get ya in front of tha Old Man and he'd listen to ya if we brought tha barrels. Well, there's tha barrels, there's the Old Man, and here ya stand. An' if I remember right, it didnt cost ya a coin. So if ya don't wanna work wit pops, then yous can make like a tree, n get the hell outta here. There's the door." Nik swung his arm around so that he now pointed towards a tunnel going off the side of the room. The dwarf was not quite heated in his argument, but he was noticably toeing that line.

The room grew quiet for the most part, in anticipation. Even the Old Man stood there staring with a smirk on his face, waiting for whatever the response might be. The only break to the silence, which then continued right after, was Nack. After managing to stand back up on his own, he proceeded to fall on his face with a dull thud and quiet groan.

Uthal growls a bit before it turns to a short laugh as Nack falls over. "Fine, your knees can stay for now. Nack's head will probably hurt worse in the morning anyways." He looks to the old man. "I hear that your Emperor has some new friends of the unwelcome sort. Happens that I'm not fond of them either. Perhaps we could rid the world of their presence."

"Tha boys told me ya had a intrest in his friends; buncha humies from Cathaan. Come on." The Old Man waved for the party to follow as he walked back in the direction of his 'throne'. He put his arm around Nik's shoulders, leading him, while the two left Nack where he lay face-down. Nack was breathing hard, though it quite possibly could be him snoring.

"Haha. They did'n know yous was drinkin' it all." The Old Man remarked again to Nik, regarding the previous exchange about the wine.

Although heading in that direction, the dwarfs did not return to the throne. Instead the went towards a tunnelway, to the right of the throne. The tunnel only went a few feet before opening up to another room. It already had torches lit within. As the Old Man and Nik entered, so to do two of the other bystanders from the 'throne room'; a gnome wearing baggy brown robes and a human in leather armor with an eye patch. The human looked relatively like that from another one of the wanted-posters that the group saw earlier, labeled as One-Eyed Jack.

Austinf ollows, but remains quiet.

Anearis followed the group inside the side chamber. He noticed the two new individuals in the room. He turned to address the Old Man.

"You know what brings us here. Can you help us or not?", asked the elf.