At first you see a pair of light-brown, leathery hands on one of the large stone columns. At the end of each of the four fingers are are long sharp claws. Then a head sticks out from the side of the column. The prominent thing on this creatures face is a large green eye that stares at you.

"Well you are an interesting creature," Saravena says curiously as she cautiously moves closer to the creature. "Tell me what is your name? What are you doing here?"

Taken aback by the voice in his head "By the gods, what is that?" he mutters in hushed tones, looking around, gripping his axe even more tightly in his hands, surprise that Saravena reacts so calmly....but readies an action to strike is the monstrosity moves to attack anyone in the group.

"No name." The creature then cackles "No name. No name. No name!"

It then steps out from behind the column and takes a step closer.

"I guard for treasure and meat."

Tagret remains poised to attack should the creature try to harm any of the group, stepping closer to Saravena so that he has a shot should the creature attack "Saravena....what are you doing".  Tagret is torn between rushing the creature and holding his action based on the last time he acted to put an end to the doppleganger.

"Learning," Saravena answers waving back Tagret while keeping her eyes on the creature. "I have never seen a creature like this. It has no name so I do not think it was conjured here, it may have been here before the bandits. It could be useful.

"Tell me nameless one who is it that you guard for? Do you just guard because they give you meat and treasure? If we promise to give you meat soon would you be willing to help us? It will be fresh meat." As idea hits Saravena she begins digging into her pack pulling out two full flasks of blood, holding them out to the creature, "Here I can give you this to try one is the blood collected from a goblin while the other is collected from a bugbear, have you tried either of those before?"

The creature carefully approaches cautious, but curious, it smells the air around the vials of blood.

"I'm not sure how I feel about using goblin blood to barter," Bitenose states. "What if he decides it likes the taste of me?"

After a moment the creature lets out another mad cackle.

"You feed, you pass. You feed, you pass. You feed, you pass."

It then begins to move around circles in an excited manner before letting out another cackle.

"Well I only had those two, the wolf blood but I think what ever this creature is has already tried wolf and I needed something different, and the doubleganger blood but I am using that in some of my alchemical mixtures so I am not giving that away," Saravena replies trying her best not to anger or frighten Bitenose anymore. "In addition you are in the employ of someone who I consider a friend and I do not plan on feed an employee of a friend to a guard creature. We can easily bring back other goblins for it to eat if it gets a taste for it, we still have all those in the field where we met you."

 "Shall we proceed? I feel it would be best to explore this side of the crevasse first,"  Saravena inquires turning to the rest of the party motioning westward.

Maerys scowls at the creature, keeping one hand on her dagger and another near her component pouch throughout Saravena's interaction with it. "Careful, Saravena. I don't think I have to tell you, but it's probably best to keep our eyes on them. Something about this creature is familiar..."

(Could Maerys make an arcana check to determine what this creature is?)

(She can make an arcana check sure.)

22

Maerys remembers reading a tome about magical and unusual creatures. And in that book there was a brief description of  a creature called a nothic that seems to describe the one creature before you now. It also mentioned that creature communicates with telepathy, and that its eye hold power.

As the beast retreats and the group advances, Tagret remains cautious and at the ready, not quite believing what Saravena had accomplished "Unbelievable...." he calls out in hushed tones out of respect for her talent, then turns to investigate the area they are entering into

Perception: 11

...and like usual, Tagret is not the most observant of the bunch, obviously more attuned to the mountains than dark basements/dungeons

Tagret investigates the area but finds nothing of interest amongst the animal remains. On this side of the crevasse there there are two exists from this chamber both leading west. One closer, and one further away.

“Careful, everyone,” Maerys mutters in a hushed tone. “If I remember correctly, that creature is a nothic; a twisted beast. Be careful when speaking to it, or looking into it’s eye.”

Keeping one eye on the beast and the other on the cavern, Tagret decides to move to the most southern exit on the western side, but then turns to Saravena "Why don't you ask the beast if there are any secrets it can share, going room to room in this place will likely set an alarm off at some stage, so if it knows anything, see if it will share now that you have it literally end out of you hand"?"

He will then disappear down the passageway and listed at the doors, trying to keep an eye out for traps, calling for light from the mage to light the way.

Perception check door 1 (south); 12

Perception check door 2 (north); 16

(Just realised that 1 week ago it was the anniversary of the start of this game.)

As Tagret listens to the south door he hears several gruff voices snapping in a language that he is not familiar with.

Moving to the other door, he hears several voices in Common discussing a game, and by the sounds of it, it's a game of knucklebones.

Happy anniversary everyone!!

Hearing voices from both doors he retreats to the others in the cavern "Stay quiet - the rooms down there have men in them, we should try to stay undetected as long as possible, did you get any details from the creature"  

Tagret will wait for anything to be relayed, but if not, he will push out to the east side and check the southern tunnel first.

Saravena nods at Maerys's warning but still turns back to the creature to see if she can get any answers from it, "Hey friend what can you tell us about this place? Would you happen to perhaps know how many people, aside from us, are in this place and where they might be? Or maybe you would be willing to share your favorite hiding places? I promise as soon as we are finished here we will get you some delicious meat and maybe some shiny treasure if you can help us out."

((Happy anniversary! I can not believe it has been over a year, it does not feel that long)) 

The nothic cocks its head before responding to Saravena, "Glasstaff, Redbrands, bugbears, goblins, skeletons and captives."

As Tagret crosses the bridge to the other side he sees a half eaten man lying at the bottom of the crevasse. He then continues across the bridge to the east side and checks to tunnel to the south.