Chapter 4: Adventures in Blingdenstone

As Mai'ngor is pulled up, his swing goes wide and he doesn't manage to cut the rope. Luckily for him, Soliin was prepared, and in just a few moments, he has the knot undone, dropping Mai'ngor 10 feet to the ground (2 damage).

Mai'ngor stands just as a group of gnomes come around the corner from the tunnel ahead, "Who are you and what do you want here?" one of them asks.

"Ratmen? What do you know about anything?" he snarls at you and his face begins to elongate into a rat's snout and he grunts in pain, then his companions begin to morph as well, "What do you want here? These are our lands!" he says as he finishes, ending in a shape that's almost like a humanoid rat.

"We're listening, but do make it quick!"

The lead rat-gnome leans in to whisper to the others. After several tense moments he turns back to you, "Follow me, you'll want to speak to Chipgrin," he says and then (assuming you agree) leads you down a couple of tunnels. A short time later you enter into a large chamber, swarming with gnomes.

A small crowd has gathered here. Most of the assembled creatures are deep gnomes, but some have ratlike features - including a fat specimen standing in front of the others, smiling at you with jagged buckteeth. "Peace," the big wererat says. He takes a step forward, arms extended and hands open. "Chipgrin's the name. I'm chief of the Goldwhisker clan. Shall we talk?"

"Let's go somewhere a bit more private, shall we?" he says, then turns and leads you to a plateau in another part of the chamber. Stairs lead to the top of this rise, where the floor is covered with a soft and well-manicured carpet of green moss. The wererat chief sits on a stone chair flanked by two giant rats. Draped over the chair's back is a cave badger pelt.

"I was hoping to get a chance to speak to someone soon. See, we're having a problem here: We're under constant attacks by the oozes that now infest the northern part of the city proper. We've found that they have a leader, a gnomish leader. I remember him from when he worked in the tunnels, and my kin saw him when he returned. I know who he is, what he's doing, and - most of all - where he can be found! If you and the Diggermattocks want, I can take you straight to him - he what calls himself the Pudding King."

"Have you seen how many oozes are down there? We know where he is, but we don't have the gnomepower to get in and get the job done. We are few, and everyone of us is valuable in holding what territory we do have."

"Sounds good to me..." he says as you work together to negotiate a time and place for the leaders to meet. You work your way back and forth between the Goldwhiskers and the Diggermattocks and come to an agreement for them to meet the next day at Diggermattock Hall in the morning.