Ologu will take in a deep breath and resolve himself to the next task at hand.

"We should make haste. Let us clean out the filth from this cave, rescue Sildar, if possible, and force the location of Gundren from one of the maggots inside."

Ologu will retrieve, quickly clean, and reholster his javelin as he arrives with the party near the entrance of the cave.

Lia nods to Ologu in agreement as they both pad purposefully back towards the cave. She retrieves her arrow from the goblin she shot by the thicket. And if it has some of those black, goblin-arrows, she’ll take three-or-four of those too, before joining the others just outside the cave entrance.

Lorahzt nods once in quiet approval as Lia finishes off the goblin prisoner. She does not take joy in the goblin's death, but she does not mourn its passing either. It was an enemy and a threat to their mission, so it was only good that they deal with it now. Now with the darkness of the cave ahead of her, Lorahzt breathes a small sigh of relief. She turns to her fellows and says, "I see best in the dark, so I can lead if there are no objections."

(Wow Lia, violent much.)

As Lia snaps Nix's neck, you all head into the cave, following upstream for a little while.

Just inside the cave mouth, a few uneven stone steps lead up to a small, dank chamber on the east side of the passage. The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and is filled with the stench of animals. Savage snarls and the sounds of rattling chains greet your ears where three wolves are chained up just inside the opening. Each wolf’s chain leads to an iron rod driven into the base of a stalagmite.

The wolves snap and bark at you as you pass through. Cade notices no potential enemies except the wolves. What do you all want to do now?

((yes, eek!))

“What should we do?” whispers Lia. “Should we just sneak past the wolves for now?”.

She tries to peer further up the stream with her darkvision.

Perception: 12

“Me thinks we should just avoid dem mangey wolves,” Thror says as he gingerly side steps the wolves and starts heading towards the entrance to the back of the cave.

@DM, do the wolves look in good condition or are they starved and mistreated? Arame seems to remember that she has heard that goblins don't treat wolves well. I can't see deeper in the cave but I could cast Comprehend languages and roll an Animal Handling check. She doesn't want to admit that their killing Nix disturbed her. He was an enemy but he had cooperated with them and she felt sure she could take care of him while the others went to the caves. Perhaps they were right, but it made her feel that they didn't trust her to take care of herself.

"I stand with the dwarf," Lorahzt murmurs as she looks distrustingly at the wolves. While she didn't want to leave such a danger at her back, the chain certainly looked sturdy enough to hold them, and more importantly, she wasn't sure if their little band could finish them off quietly. Caves tended to echo sound, after all. "Might alert anything else in the cave..."

Without the bright light in the sky to keep her squinting, Lorahzt looks much less angry now, and she turns her maroon eyes towards the stone steps, which she quietly approaches. Once she reaches the base of them, she stays perfectly still and listens...

"I could talk to the wolves..." Cade says in a tentative voice, speakign out loud.  He stands back, nervously handling the chunk of wood at his throat as he looks between the group and the wolves.

Ologu quietly says to Cade, “If you think you can convince the wolves that we belong here, it might be worth giving it a try.”

Arame looks at Cade thoughtfully. "Do you have the ability to speak their language?" Maybe between both of us, we could at least find out if they are taken care of or not. If not, they might be willing to help us in exchange for food and freedom. I'm pretty good with animals and if you can speak to them, I will do my best to help.

Arame, your efforts to calm down the wolves are successful, and they settle back down. Feel free to ritual cast comprehend languages. Would you all like to stay in the corridor by the wolves and wait until Arame finishes casting or do you want to move on?

Seeing the wolves calm down, Thror glances back then continues moving towards the exit at the far end. Instead of going in, he stands by the wall at to the side of the fissure and watches for any unexpected company, "If ye want te be doing something. Best ye be doing it quick."

Arame casts Comprehend Languages Ritually. 

As Arame and Cade take a moment to deal with the wolves, Lia draws her bow and hunkers down on the steps to keep watch up and down the stream...

Ologu will stay in the corridor but try to position himself against a wall, with his focus deeper into the cave. He hopes to find a place in the wall where the irregular shape might magnify sound waves from further upstream. He will be listening for footfalls, goblin chatter or any other noises above the stream noises. He will also be looking upstream with whatever clarity his Darkvision will avail him.

Cade casts speak with animals as a ritual.  He then moves closer to the wolves and says... “I am a friend.  What can I do to aid you?”

(I am having PC issues today,a nd can only access the ability to post on my phone. Thigns might be slower on my part untilt hat is fixed.)

Lorahzt takes up a position with Ologu watching and listening for trouble. After a moment, she glances over to him, then to where Cade and Arame are trying to befriend the wolves. "Do you think they'll actually succeed with the wolves?" She whispers to the half-orc.

Ologu curls one side of his mouth in a sly smile. "They have already succeeded, somewhat. The wolves are not howling out an alarm, I am grateful for that. If Cade can talk with them, hopefully they can reveal the size of the herd of goblins we're likely to face and maybe any other creatures that have passed this way. I doubt that the wolves have ever been.deeper in the cave, so it will be unlikely that they can tell us about layouts or rooms, but you never know."