As you take decide to take a rest at Adabra's place, she brings out a picnic blanket and lays it on the ground. She also brings out some tea and cookies, placing them in the middle of the blanket before joining you all. 

At Robwin's question, she let's out a laugh. "HA! I'm no practitioner of the arcane. Any regular old schmo can make potions of healing if they wanted to. It's all about the ingredients. When combined together in a certain way, they create a magical effect. I don't need to do any magic to get them to work. If you're looking for precious gems, I'm not sure you could find any around here, unfortunately. I would suggest the mines, but they contain precious metals rather than gems."

“Thanks again, Ms Gwynn. When we need more potions, we’ll know where to come! And if you ever need us, just send word to the Stonehill Inn”

OOC: I assume Vimak grabbed the two intact spines? And did Adas get anything else from the manticore remains? Aside from that, I’m ready to go too.

(Oh whoops. My bad, I missed Adas' roll)

Due to the mismatched nature of the manticore, its difficult to know even where to start. However, Adas skillfully manages to skin the lion part of the creature with ease. He also manages to extract a good hand full of its tail spikes.

Adabra smiles at Robwin. "Absolutely no problem at all, dearies. You saved my life so it's the least I can do. Safe travels now!"

(You got 15lb of lion pelt and 5 more spikes. If you want a trophy from the creature, let me know if you want anything specific, like a paw or it's whole head, Mighty Nein style. I'll update with a new post of you guys at Gnomengarde in a bit. I just have some irl stuff to do first.)

After your short rest, you bid your farewells to Adabra and make your way to Gnomengard. Before you leave, Adabra gives you a few directions to follow, leading you to a stream nearby.

You follow the stream uphill to the base of the mountain, where waterfall erosion has carved out a natural concavity. The roaring waterfall creates a cloud of mist as it plunges into a shallow pool of water, within which rise two small islands covered with two-foot-tall red, green, and purple mushrooms. Several cave openings overlook the pool from rocky ledges twenty to thirty feet above, a bit of light spilling out from them. The sun is still high in the sky and so is still providing a little bit of light but as the day goes by, the mountain will completely block out the sun, making it diffcult for those without darkvision to see.

MAP (The green circle is the party token.)

Stopping for a moment, and trying to be as quiet as possible (OOC: stealth +3 if you need to roll) Robwin whispers to the team “Should we announce ourselves loudly and enter as guests? Or try and sneak in? ...I feel like we have nothing to hide, and we come with a warning and an offer of help... but I don’t know these rock gnomes.” (OOC: would a history check help with understanding the nature and temperament of gnomes? +6)

Prosper spends the short rest chatting with the party, showing Vimak her shortbow as she answers any questions he has. Still feeling fairly chipper she decides this would be a good time to practice knife-throwing, almost cutting herself before she bids a cheerful goodbye to Adabra as the party heads off towards Gnomengarde.

She blinks into the darkness cast by the caverns, darkvision just about doing the job of letting her see the inside of the cave. "Is this it? Seems a little gloomy to me, but then again, maybe the gnomes prefer it. Let's not worry about being sneaky. The gnomes are supposed to be friendly, and we don't want to set a bad first impression. We should hurry before the sun sets on us."

Robwin looks towards Prosper with his darkvision, “Agreed... I suggest we light a torch, and call out to see if anyone’s home... while approaching in a friendly manner”. Unless anyone objects, he’ll pull out a torch from his pack and light it using prestidigitation.

"We have nothing to fear. The board request seemed to imply they were active participants in the regions economy. Let us present ourselves," Adas states as he stands toward the back of the group.

(Adas only takes a claw for himself. The face is to disturbing to tout the head around but thank you for the offer.)

(@Robwin, sure go ahead and make a history check if you still want to know about rock gnomes.)

As you all talk, you find it a little difficult to hear each other over the loud crashing of waterfall. If you get any closer to it, you'd need to raise your voices in order to be heard.

OOC: great, thanks! History check for rock gnomes: 16

Tahnis smiles as he takes notice of the cave and the waterfall. "We should announce ourselves at the very least."

If everyone is in agreement, Robwin is happy to lead the team South, along the East bank of the stream to where the stream starts to meet the lake. Walking proudly (all weapons stowed away) and holding the torch high before him, he comes calling loudly over the noise of the water: "HO THERE!! Noble Rock Gnomes of Gnomengarde! We come as friends from Phandalin, with news!"....

He looks and listens intently (perception check?: 17)... before continuing forward a few feet and calling and listening again...

Vimak will light a torch at the same time Robwin does. He walks next to Robwin, shield on his forearm, but without holding any of his axes.

Lia the owl hops across to Vimak’s shoulder and nuzzles his cheek as if to say thanks, before keeping a sharp watch from her now higher vantage point. 

OOC: darkvision 120ft. Perception check: 19

(Let me just... copy and paste the forgotten realms wiki page....)

Robwin:

 As Robwin shouts out a greeting to the gnomes, nothing happens. He tries to listen for any sound but the only thing he can hear is the crashing of the waterfall. 

Lia doesn't notice anything particularly interesting but notes that there are multiple entrances that head deeper into the caves. Though most require you to climb, there is an entrance with a narrow slope leading upwards to the south east of your current location.

Prosper waits for a few minutes for an answer, and is rather disappointed when nothing happens. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she hollers again into the cave. "Hello? Is anyone home?"

Assuming no one answers, she shrugs, a little perturbed but not really bothered. "I guess no one's around. Should we just enter then? I don't feel great about entering someone's home without permission but we do have important news and they're not answering the figurative door." 

She doesn't light a torch as she glances around the visible parts of the cave. "Which way, friends?"

“Hmmm... if there’s anything I remember from my studies it’s that rock gnomes are typically fun loving, like children. They might just be playing a game of hide and seek with us... ... I say we check out this nearest entrance while we’re here. It’s the only one with a slope up after all. Hmmm... but I don’t trust them not coming out to meet us, something seems odd. Keep an eye out for jokes, and tricks, and traps...”.

Unless anyone objects, Robwin leads the team up to the entrance with the slope, while keeping sharp eye out for trickery, and calling out to the gnomes once again.

Tahnis grimaces at no sign of the gnomes. "It could also mean something else," he whispers as he draws his bow.

Once again, as you call out to the gnomes, there is no response. All you continue to hear is the crashing of the waterfall. As you all head up the slope, you find a set of thick wooden doors that stand roughly around 5ft tall. The waterfall grows louder as you approach, almost deafening you.

(OOC: two completely separate doorways? or one pair of double doors?)

"Hmmm... Should we knock?" says Robwin, "Maybe you guys check out the doors here: locks and traps are not my thing! And I'll send Lia to quickly go and peek at the other ledges...".

If no one objects, Robwin sits near the top of the slope and uses find familiar to look through Lia's eyes. Together they fly just high enough, and just close enough, to each ledge to take a peak at what's there: starting with the big one to the West, and checking each ledge in turn, around the cavern, in an anticlockwise direction. Without going too near, she'll also glance at the mushrooms and the waterfall on her way round. And the slightest sign of trouble she'll fly straight back to the group.

(OOC: Lia is trying to be super sneaky - stealth check for Lia: 18 - perception check for Lia: 11 )