After everything was said and done, the party decided to follow Kwiz's lead and head towards the sound of the voices that Kwiz had heard. You leave the room you're in funneling into the south hallway, Kwiz leading the way, Rush following close behind, and Willem and Oban making up the tail. The hallway curves to the right, leading to one of the overlooks you saw from outside the caves when you first arrived with a sharp left turn right before that. You take that turn and shortly that hallway makes another sharp left. Ahead of you is another 3-way intersection. Directly across from you is a room that has a bunch of barrels in it. Kwiz reads the sign above the doorway that reads "Wine Cellar" in Gnomish. The other option is a right turn. That's where the argument seems to be coming from. You head that direction.

As soon as you arrive in the room where the argument is coming from, you are stopped by two Rock Gnome Recluse guards. They're standing on a cliff that overlooks the room you just walked into. The cliff looks to be about 10' tall and they have what appears to be a prisoner behind them. She is a Tiefling with onyx black skin, gold eyes, gold hair, and she is wearing earth tone clothes that match the tones of her eyes and hair that are of the style of desert-dwelling cultures. 

The two Rock Gnomes interrupt their argument, and the Tiefling's explanations, to speak in a harsh tone towards the party. The first Gnome, a female, yells something out in Gnomish (Kwiz recognizes it as "Who goes there!") and then the male bellows out in Common, "Who goes there!"

In Gnomish Kwisatz replies "Ah! We're simply looking for Fibblestib or Dabbledob. I've heard they were in the workshop. You see... we come from town looking to share in your research on how to deal with dragons."

[Gnomish] "Well, we've been ordered to kill any shapechangers on sight. How do we know you're not a shapechanger?!" Both of the guards get into a more offensive position, pointing a shortsword at you.

"Shapechangers?! Interesting! I've never met a shapechanger before. Where are they coming from? Why are the a threat?" Kwisatz says, and then seeing the gnomes bristle while he rambles catches himself, and says "Ah right. Clearly you haven't worked much in research. It's impossible to prove that I'm NOT something. I could ask you the same question. How do I know that YOU aren't a shapechanger? As you can see, we're at an impasse. How about pointing me to the workshop to find Fibblestib or Dabbledob. Perhaps they'll have a more analytical way of looking at things."

Kwiz persuasion check: 18

The two consult with each other for a minute or two, then turn back to the party, [in Common] You do make a good point. Plus, shapechangers would surely take less conspicuous forms. Listen, we can't leave our post, but if you head over that way," the male gnome points to your right towards the rope bridge, "it'll lead you to the workshop. If you are who you say you are, you'll figure it out."

Then, they turn to the Tiefling and say, "I guess you must be with them, then, if you all come from the same place and say you're here for the same reason." The female gnome takes off the Tiefling's bindings and lets her go.

"Go on, then," she says.

The members of the party do recognize the Tiefling. They've seen her before around Phandalin, taking jobs from the job board outside the townmaster's hall. You don't know her name, though, since she's typically worked alone up to this point.

Sael stands slowly while gazing at the newcomers.  She turns to the gnome guards.  "I would like the return of all of my belongings, as well."

She turns again, her golden eyes looking somberly at her rescuers, and decides to hold out her hand to Kwisatz.  "Thank you.  I didn't want to harm them; we Tieflings get bad enough of a reputation and it would have defeated the purpose of my being here."  She pauses.  "If you'd like, I can join you.  My name is Sael, and I promise I'm no shapeshifter." she says with no trace of humor.

The guards cautiously hand over all of Sael's things. You can tell that even though Kwiz's argument made logical sense, that it doesn't sit well with them. "Here you go," the male says. "If they ask how you got passed us, though, just tell them you hit us or something."

The female gnome elbows the male in the ribs, "That would be dishonest, Pog."

"Well, Ulla, it would be better than being thought of as insubordinate," Pog responded in a huff. Then he turns his head away from Ulla and, under his breath, he says, "We shouldn't be telling them our names..."

With a sheepish smile, Ulla says, "Don't mind him. We're just a bit on edge. Fibblestip or Dabbledop will be able to tell you more. We're not at liberty."

Sael arranges her things, dusts off her hands, quietly takes note of what the gnomes said, and waits expectantly for Kwisatz or anyone else's response to her joining them.

Oban looks up and says, "We've seen you around town. The more the merrier."

Willem looks at you, smiles, and nods in a "hello" sort of way. Then he starts leading the way onto the bridge. Oban is following right behind. 

((With Willem and Oban in the lead to cross the bridge, what order to the rest of you want to be in?))

Sael acknowledges their reply, and falls in line with them, letting them lead the way. This is difficult, as Sael is a fast walker and usually ends up in front.

((I'll take up the back as the newbie.))

"I'll trust your lack of shapechangerness for now." Kwistatz says with a slight bit of sarcasm, adding "what were you doing in this cave? Did you come following the poster as well? You see... these... friends? well.. companions anyway... and I were all looking for work and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk to some fellow gnomes. More so considering they apparently had some knowledge of dealing with dragons! Imagine that! But I shouldn't have doubted it really. We are a craft people. Actually, my great great grandfather... the great Muraz, he...ah.. perhaps another time. We're off to find a Fibblestib or Dabbledob. They apparently run the workshop here." All of this said in Kwisatz' normal extremely fast pace while he seems to be focusing on something else.

((no need! lead away. We're still just getting starting so haven't really found roles yet))

Sael slowly closes her eyes in slight exasperation, realizing she was about to be stuck with these people for some time.  She breathes deeply.

"Yes, I was also looking for work.  This seemed a good place to start." she replied.  "Does what you craft have any merit?"  she asks.

Kwisatz looks at himself, and up to the white raven on his shoulder, as if questioning who the tiefling is talking to "Me? My craft? Oh.. I'm more of a researcher myself. Found some amazing things in the last hundred years or so. Though I've recently turned my focus towards the future actually. Did you know that it may actually be possible to foresee certain events?! Perhaps even have a direct impact on how things turn out?! It's a fascinating field of study actually. It started with a researcher named Holtzman a long while back. He found a... oh but we really must focus on the task at hand. To be continued. Let us find this Fibblestib or Dabbledob shall we!" Finishing his bit of rambling Kwisatz heads off in the direction he was given

As a group, you all head to the bridge. The bridge is difficult to cross. There's just enough space for one of you and due to the somewhat shaky nature of the rope bridge, you decide to space yourselves out a bit. As you approach the other side of the bridge, you hear a loud whirring sound. At first, you thought the whirring sound was somehow related to the 60' waterfall right next to you; but, as you got closer to the end of the bridge, you realized the sound was coming from the next room.

Following the obvious path and heading towards the noise, you begin to step into the room. Willem steps in, first and stops just short of becoming confetti in a giant whirling fan. Stopping so abruptly took Oban by surprise, and Oban's foot slipped on the wet stone carved and worn steps that are permanently wet from the mist of the waterfall. Oban falls forward into Willem, pushing him into the spinning blades. 

Willem takes 15 damage.

Dexterity Saving Throw (to see if the blades grabbed him and flung him into the other blades): 2  (Yikes! That's a nat 1)

His forward momentum caused him to be caught by the blades as they ripped him severely and immediately killed him; but they also propelled him into the other spinning turbine which sits only one foot away from the first one. Willem takes another 18 of damage.

And, with that, Willem became a red mist that, after the initial violent explosion of ichor that has now painted the cave walls in this room, has mixed in with the mist from the water fall and has landed gently all over Oban's face and back as Oban lays in disbelief on the hard stone floor of the cave right where his comrade once stood. 

Sael notices everyone's stopped moving.  "What's going on up there?" she shouts ahead.

The current map

Oban slowly gets up off of the ground to a kneeling position. He looks completely dumbstruck. What everyone else is now looking at is the larger eastern part of the room contains two rapidly spinning devices that look like turnstiles fitted with stacks of long, sharp blades spaced 1 foot apart. The northern turnstile spins counterclockwise, while the southern one spins clockwise.

Kwisatz jumps back to the ledge in a state of shock. This isn't what he thought adventuring would be. His companion is literally a mist around him now... ((con save 4)) He just barely holds on to consciousness, but just stands frozen, his hands flipping through his Adventure book, searching for something that isn't there.

Rush just looks on helplessly as Willem is pulped.

After a full minute or two of shock, Oban slowly turns around, "I...I don't know what happened. I just...slipped. I don't ever lose my footing. And, then he..." he just drifts off. 

Everyone go ahead and roll Perception.

Oban Perception: 16