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(Yep, that works!)

Making sure that her rifle, while still in her hands, is not held in any remotely threatening way, Manizei gives the others a brief nod and steps forwards into the cavern.
"Well," she begins. "I'm glad we're able to talk. I suppose we should begin with the basics. I am Manizei, and I'm here to look for a lost man. Nothing more, or less, than that. I mean no harm to those who would leave me n peace, and I have no interest in taking what is yours. So," she smiles. "Who are you?"

(First order of business, I just now noticed that I forgot to give you Gerrol's stuff. Please add to the loot list: 1 Masterwork chain shirt, masterwork thieves' tools, 1 masterwork hand crossbow with 5 bolts, and 75 GP)

Niles and Manizei are taken to one of the structures in this cavern, which look to be huts made of scrap. Two features distinguish the cavern from any other: a large pit to the south, and the fact that the eastern wall of the cavern is clearly not natural, being composed of dull gray metal. (Niles would recognize this from his archaeological work as glaucite, an alloy common to technological ruins.)

Inside you meet with a lightly-armored female skulk, who addresses you thus. "Right. I'm called Sef, and as of about five days ago, I'm in charge of this tribe. And... *sigh* look, I'll be honest, I don't want to see this deal kill any more of us than it already has. So I'm up for a new deal. You want to get in there," she says, indicating the huge metal wall, "We'll let you through our caves to do it on two conditions. One: leave us unharmed. Two: there's a nest of gremlins in the caves to the north of here, and we and they don't like each other very much. Clean them out, and you can have safe passage. I'll even throw in some shiny techno.... stuff we found just inside. Sound good?"

"Gremlins?"
Manizei's mismatched brown and grey eyes narrow. "You have my agreement to your terms. I would be wary of doing violence on your behalf, but gremlins ... those are different."

"Glad to hear it." Sef turns to Niles "And what about you?"

"It does seem like a reasonable offer," Niles opines.

"Can you show us the way to these gramlins?"

"They're in the caves north of here. There's about four of them, I think. We'd deal with them ourselves, but after that wizard and his team were through with us, there's only four of *us* now, and I really don't like those odds. Also, the little bastards like their traps, so keep an eye out." Sef indicates a passage to the north. "Come back and let me know when it's done. Good hunting!"

"The wizard and his team? Out of curiosity, has anyone else 'come through' lately?"

"Yeah, that's how we got into this mess. About twelve days ago, this big group comes in. Orcs and rat men mostly, led by this spooky purple-haired lady named.... oh what was it? Mandy... Melana... no.... Meyanda, that was it. Looked human, but with shiny skin, weird eyes, and funny glowing tattoos. Creepy monotone voice too." (Niles recognizes this as an unflattering, but mostly accurate description of an android.) "Anyway, my predecessor and this Meyanda got to talking and she gave us a deal: She gives us a big crate of silverdisks, and we kill anyone who comes in after her. She and her group went into the ruin and we haven't seen them since.

After that, the halflings came and were eaten by beetles before we met them. The second group were some local toughs we took care of right quick. We tried to do the same to the third group, led by that wizard I mentioned, and they promptly tore us a new one. Our tribe went from two dozen members to four in no time at all. They even took our payment for the job with them. Got some stuff from the ruin, came back and left."

She sighs. "The fourth group was some sort of religious pilgrimage. Don't know too much about spiritual stuff myself, so I didn't recognize the holy symbols. We were in no shape to stop them, so they went in but never came out. Anyway, group five was led by the same guy from group three and we weren't tangling with him again. He never came back this time. Well, one guy did, we chased him into the mold. But that's it."

(Does anyone else have anything to say, or are you going to go fight some gremlins?)

Enlali isn't in the chamber, so she's nervously shaking grime out of her hair and leaning up against her bardiche.

(Gremlin time.)

(Grand.)

You all find yourselves embarking on an errand to kill gremlins. You are currently at a fork in the northern passages, leading either northwest or northeast. What'll it be?

Harskgun votes for Northwest.

Having only been told that the gremlins are 'north', Manizei has little real opinion on which way to go, and agrees with Harskgun.