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Josh and Lloré are nearly halfway through the woods back to Hirot when the boy spots 4 men trekking toward their position. Josh recognizes them as the Jarl's men, two hunters and two of the town guard. While Josh may not have had much interaction with hunters, the two guards Droggo and Hadden would be familiar enough, often (perhaps with good reason) harassing Jenks.

Does Josh continue on his path or change course?

((Lloré will follow suite.))

Xepil makes a double take when Rae addresses him in such a cheerful manner- for a dwarf anyway. Was she flirting back with him now?? Talk about sending a guy mixed signals. But it just goes to figure, when he flirts its wrong but Rae can apparently tease him all she wants and its apparently okay!

Anyways..

"Look, I'd go in there myself but let's be honest, grrr, yer better built for that than me. I'd just bang my head on a rock or something, grrr." He admits before looking back. "Yeh yeh, grrr, go on take a peak in there. I promise not to stare at yer arse or whatever, grrr."

"You very well could be right," Galiena said to John's theory. "Some kind of remnant of this ancient religion?" she thought out loud, gesturing to the tomb of the king of the savage tribes.

"Maybe Rae and Xepil found something then," she added after his second statement, wondering if she heard a hint of worry in his voice. Though if she had, she wondered if it was for their safety or for fear of missing out on something. She worried over the not-so-friendly rivalry between the hobgoblin and the mage. Hopefully, she thought, a few minutes apart would help matters.

"Let's go and see. If not, then maybe if we all push on it, we can move that stone."

"Perhaps we should have stayed..." Lloré says to Josh as they're walking back, feeling a bit like a coward to not wish to venture into the haunted tomb. "What a story, huh? Finding the legendary wolf-spear of the Ulfheonar! Fit for a song, I'd think."

"Is that..." he asked, peering ahead through the trees. "Iraco and Archer," he then added, answering his own question as he recognized the Jarl's hunters. "Ah! Perhaps they've decided to renew the hunt against the Hound now that it was defeated last night! It's in for a solid thrashing now!"

And so continued on their path toward Iraco, Archer, Droggo and Hadden, even waved toward them.

Rae tsks and wags a finger at Xepil's last statement. "Aye, I'd prefer yeh keep an eye out fer problems - they're like t'show up when yehr stuck halfways in a hole like some ground hog." Meanwhile, she removes her pack and fishes out a torch and a flint and steel. "Ain't as likely t'be able t'see straight away from bein' out here in th' daylight. Watch my things, will ya?"

She slops through the stream and pokes her head into the hole but can't make out any details. So, she pops back out to light the torch. "Ya know, mebbe we ought nae tell the other tae we've peeked afore lettin' 'em in on the news... Well, here goes!" She carefully stretches the torch forward into the opening, first quickly inspecting the tunnel for any risk of cave-in or traps. If she decides it's safe, she squeezes her torso into the passageway as well and continues her investigation.

Rae spots no traps and the entrance seems stable enough to allow for entry without risking bringing the stones down on her head.

And as she shines the torch inside, she sees the opening comes up through the floor in the northeast corner of a chamber. This chamber has partially collapsed: tall stone slabs that once supported the ceiling are now canted inward by the weight of the earth above and fallen debris is piled in the center of the room.

Just at the edge of her torchlight she can see a passage leads out of the chamber on the western wall.

Rae didn't have to tell Xepil twice, as much as he liked to troll his companions, the Hobgoblin was very business oriented and knew when not to goof around. "Right, grrr." He turned around and stood guard as the dwarf went into the tunnel. His axe was out and ready, but his left hand was placed on his atlatl, strapped to his belt, ready to switch weapons if he needed to engage in ranged combat. As a rule though, he always had his axe out if he had no front line even though he preferred shooting things instead of fighting them up close. It wasn't because he was a coward, just that it was lest risk for himself, and Xepil was all about the self-preservation and smart fighting.

"Grrrhehe, yeah, it's their loss for going the wrong way." Xepil agreed with Rae that maybe they ought to not tell their companions they took a peek. "Snatch any gold you can find too, grrr. I'm sure mage boy doesn't need any extra, grrahaha." Cackled the Hobgoblin, happy to think that he might keep John away from some gold pieces.

((did someone say gold?!))
Soon enough they arrive at the East side of the Tomb, finding Xepil ready to fight and guarding an entrance to the tomb, which is lit by a torch - Raes work for sure.
"Well, looks like we're in luck! No need to get in through the front door and deal with the spirit." John announces, relieved and curious about the new entrance.

"That is a relief," Galiena agreed, looking over toward where Rae's feet were still visible.

"We didn't find anything on the other side," she told Xepil as she set down her pack. "A stream, similar to this one, but no openings like this." The cleric dug into her pack and pulled out her lantern and oil, taking a few moments to get it lit while Rae did the initial investigation.

Archer coos at Shara sympathetically. The old bird was getting on in her years and seemed to be slowly becoming a liability. It was a shame, really.

But a few moments later, she froze on his arm. Her head twisted ever so slowly to one direction, and Archer's followed suit.

"Somone may be nearby..." He said softly, reaching for his dagger hidden at his waist.

As Archer follows Shara's gaze, he sees two figures traipsing toward them... Josh and Lloré.

Lloré he'd recognize quickly as the friendly and outgoing bard, the only one in Hirot. And Josh, a teenaged boy, he might recognize as one of the Three Rats Mob... commonly considered to be pinchthieves and pickpockets.

Lloré waves while Josh hangs back a bit. Master Jenks (leader of the Three Rats Mob) has instilled a distrust of the Jarl's men in the lad.

Rae shuffles backwards out of the hole only a few minutes after Galiena and John arrive at the sight. "Ah, hello, friends! Glad ya found us; we were gonna head back after a quick peek. So, the tunnel heads up through th' floor; it's plenty safe. Th' tomb itself is a bit rickety - no dwarf's work, for sure... The chamber 'ere is crumblin' some; though, if we're careful t' keep the noise down, we should be fine. There's a passage leadin' off tae the west. Didn't see no sign o' the other fellas neither, so we best all be on th' alert."

Aw crap, the mage and the cleric returned faster than anticipated!

Xepil does his best to play it cool and rests his axe on his shoulder as the two approach. When Rae comes back from the tunnel, all he does is motion to her with his thumb. "Yeh, what she said, grrr." Yep, only legitimate business going on here, folks.

Although very tempted to taunt the Hobgoblin, John decides to avoid this for now.
"The tunnel seems recent enough, it maybe was their work. Do you think the tomb is big enough to allow our formation with two melee fighter then ranged fighters, or will we have to go there one by one?"

Archer breathed a deep sigh of relief and removed his hand from the weapon. He nodded to them, bringing one hand up in a single, solitary wave.

"Have no fear, Shara. We are safe." He stroked Shara's head gently and continued onwards.

"Damn. If we don't find anything for a few more miles..." He shook his head. "We should probably find a place to bed. This here isn't the safest of our options."

Iraco comes up beside Archer. "Those're the two that left with the newcomers. So where are they?"

Not expecting Archer to have an answer, Iraco called out "Hold there!" to the pair when they drew closer.

"Lovely day, isn't it, Iraco, Archer?" Lloré says, taking a few more casual steps toward the hunters before halting. Really, it was a cloudy, gloomy day like most of the others since the Hound started preying upon Hirot, but Morgan had been spared, so the bard was in a good mood.

Iraco's eyes narrowed toward the bard. "You left with those adventurers. Where did they go?"

Lloré's chipper demeanor faltered a little upon hearing Iraco's harsh tone. "To try to find a weapon with which to defeat the Hound!"

"Where?" Iraco pressed again. Lloré hesitated, Josh tensed, but neither answered. "Droggo, Hadden, arrest these two!"

Lloré's eyes widened in surprise. Josh turned and ran.

"Let's hope they didn't find the wolf-spear and take it south like they told Josh," Galiena said, feeling her heart sink a little at the very thought that the ancient warlord's weapon might not even be here.

Her lantern now lit, she nodded to John's proposal to let the two melee fighters go first and came up beside Rae. "You want to go in first and I'll be right behind you?"

((I'm guessing Josh had to go MIA again?))

Xepil gave John a look, but the Hobgoblin wouldn't start arguing if the mage didn't give him a reason. Instead, he focused on talking tactics.

"Don't know about the tomb itself, grrrr, but the tunnel only lets us go single file." He gave a nod to Galinea as she suggested to go in right behind Rae. "Sounds good, grrr, if we get attacked before finding our footing let's back pedal, I ain't fighting nobody while down in all fours, grrr."

He switched weapons again. Axe in his belt, and atlatl in his hand, one dart grasped on his left ready to be loaded as soon as he stood up.

"I'll move in behind Galiena, grrr, John you bring up the rear. And remember; everyone try to contain your farts until after we're out of the tunnel, grrrr." For some reason Xepil felt the need to clarify that to his companions.

Shara cawed and flew off of Archer's arm, rising upwards, before spiraling down in a dive at Josh. She opened her beak, not to kill, but to trap.

"Shara, no!"

Archer warned her, but she didn't listen. She wasn't in the best of conditions after all her other failures.