You follow the passage down into the mountain, the air growing ever more stagnant. Glowing fungus begins to appear on the walls, which glisten with moisture.  You've gone two hundred feet already; it seems clear this is not heading towards other parts of the lair.  The descent starts to become a little sharper, with crude stairs carved out here or there.  The air is beginning to feel... wrong.

Any or all of you can make a History check.

Wash's history check: 10

Balassar History check: 1

Wash, you're not sure where this is heading, but you don't see anything that troubles you.

Balassar on the other hand, you recall what you've heard and found about Stahlmast's links to Xhorhas, the nation to the east where the drow rule.  And here, these strange glowing fungus, the strange sensation of danger, you think on what you've heard from other mercenaries about what lies beneath Wildemount, and the consequences of going too deep.  It's too soon to say, but this tunnel might lead to somewhere that you, Alton and Wash are absolutely not equipped for.

Balassar just holds up his hand "As much as I like a fight, this might be a little to much for us."

Alton's History check: 18

Alton looks at Balassar, "Which of the other paths would you like to take?"

Balassar just looks back at him "Honestly don't care. Just have a feeling from stories, the downward path isn't something we should do. Though if you all want to go I'll follow."

Alton, there are two main possibilities for where this tunnel leads.  One is Hupperdook.  The other is the Underdark.  

Your guess is that it’s headed in the wrong compass direction for Hupperdook.

Wash agrees "I think back up to the top then? We can finish clearing out the other rooms and try to see if Huron had any other cool gizmos or gadgets."

[If Alton explains where the tunnel likely leads, Wash will also suggest that they block it off at the top as well by piling tables etc. in front of the door.]  

Alton looks back down the secret tunnel, "I think Balassar is right, we can explore this tunnel another time to see where it goes. You guys want to go check out the storage room and the rest of this secret base? I bet there are more kobolds lurking around."

What are you guys doing next?

Wash walks back up to the workshop and goes to explore the west passageway that Alton found.

Balassar will follow Wash and smile as he looks at the ingots in the room. He begins to look through them for anything of value or of good smithing quality to shove in his pack.

OOC:

investigation check: 17

Alton will follow in behind Wash and Balassar. Noticing Balassar digging through the supplies, he will lend a hand to see what all they might be able to pilfer from this room.

OOC: with the help from Alton: 5

There's probably around 250 golds' worth of stuff here, most likely robbed from Hupperdook from the looks of it.  Balassar reckons he could grab and carry about 50 golds' worth of ingot of various metals, but the rest is too heavy to lug around.

As the three of you are searching through the room, you hear footsteps approaching from the south.  Down the flight of stairs comes a dwarf, or at least so you think.  He doesn't look much like any other dwarves you've seen - he has light-grey skin and darker-gray hair, though there's less hair than beard.  He looks unhappy to see you and says something which you recognise as being the dwarvish language, though none of you speak it.

Wash calls out in Common "Hello there, do you speak Common? Maybe some other language?"

Balassar begins to stuff his bag full of the best quality ingots he can finds.

Alton looks up from his searching when he hears the Dwarf and Wash speak and looks at them, "Uhh... Hi."

The dwarf sees Balassar taking ingots, and shouts something loudly, apparently aimed at the corridor behind him.  And he draws from his waist a large, ugly-looking war pick that you would guess has seen a great deal of use in its days.

Roll initiative please.