The Gaming Den

"Well, it looks like I don't have much choice in the matter," Gilles remarks as he turns his full attention to what's going on at the door. He is reluctant to fire at the owlbear, lest he hit Guillermo or Atani (both of whose strength he would dearly miss,) but he also doesn't want to cast a spell if it's not needed.

Right before this sock-hop starts, Xaxus casts bless on the party.

"Reaper of all life, empower us to murder our foes before they murder us."

Guillermo grabs the lip of the door and heaves upwards, muscles straining against the weight...after a full minute of this, he falls back, defeated, the door not having budged an inch.

[Guillermo has failed his Open Doors roll.]

Shuffling around Guillermo, Atani takes hold of the door and his mighty thews groan...he feels it give an inch...two inches...and then with a mighty clatter, the stone portal rises once again.

Looking out into the clearing, you see the "owlbear" has split into two parts - with, respectively, the top half of a gnome coming out of the bottom half of the "owlbear" and the bottom half of a gnome walking around in the top half of the "owlbear" - both of whom are busily rummaging through your stuff.

Atani is momentarily boggled by the sight, but he quickly raises his bow and his voice to get some explanations.
"We've been tricked, get out here!" Atani calls to his companions. Then as he sights an arrowshaft at the gnomes he says
"Explain yourselves swiftly or the only things you'll take from us will be these arrows from my quiver. Who are you and what are you doing?"

Betsy struggles to look through a sea of legs, but makes no effort to get closer to the doorway. "What's going on? Is it still out there?"

The gnomes squeak and high-tail it for the woods, using the wagon as cover.

Guillermo charges at the gnomes, if he can't close the distance to skewer them he'll throw a dagger.

Sir Spastis runs past the open door and after Guillermo, brandishing his longsword. "Hold, villainous thieves, and face judgment!". If he sees he can't close the distance, he will stop by the wagon to check on the supplies.

Atani will fire his bow using the stapling shot technique. Attempting to pin any Gnome he hits to a wagon or a passing tree. After his bolts loose he takes off after the thieves.
(Atani fires 2 arrows at Thaco 18 at 2 different gnomes. If either one hits then that gnome is pinned in place for a round. If one is pinned he'll hold that gnome for questioning. If he misses he will run after the gnomes using his woods invisibility to shadow them secretly until they come to some sort of base of operations like a camp or something, whereafter he will return to the party and lead them to the gnomes hideout)

The bottom-owlbear gnome clambers into the undergrowth before anyone can catch him or get a shot off, but the top-owlbear gnome is tackled by Guillermo, and immediately surrenders.

Sir Spastis sees that the food-bags are open, and a five-pound brick of elven tea is missing. It will be many long and cold dawns without your morning cup of tea...

Gilles is equally surprised and amused by the outcome of the whole chase. Fairly certain that the gnome is too far away to hear him, but not caring too much, Gilles addresses the party: "So, what do we want to ask of this one?"

Sir Spastis frowns and closes the food bags. Sheathing his longsword, he makes his way towards Guillermo and the captured gnome. He nods appreciatively to the minotaur and turns to the prisoner.

"Shame on you, thief! Explain yourself! Is getting a bagful of food worth being riddled with arrows or burned to a crisp?"

Besides the owlbear costume (which, on close inspection, appears to be made primarily from a fine metal mesh and chicken feathers, with some sort of owlbear call incorporated into the hinged beak), the gnome is dressed rather poorly in homemade clothes; his only other possessions appear to be a small knife and a handful of hand-whittled wooden gears. The gnome appears to speak only Gnomish.

"Oh, that was a pretty good trick," Tim says. "Although, they were gambling with their lives; anyone who would have stood against an owlbear would have chopped these little gremlins to pieces in short order."

"I wonder if we can use these gnomes to our advantage. Just now we were taught two things: even fake owlbear are terrifying, and there exist folk who would use a fake owlbear to steal food. If we could but communicate with the gnomes we could hire them to use their costume to secure our camp site for a ration of food as we loot the tomb."

Betsy joins the others back outside the tomb. "Who shall round up our wagon drivers and mules? It is not surprising that the owlbear frightened them so, but they should be unharmed if they remained close by."

She moves to join the others interrogating the gnome. "Perhaps we can communicate in a simpler fashion. He can count, I'm sure. I'll try to ask if there are any other gnomes."

Pointing at the gnome, Elizabeth holds up one finger. "You. One gnome" she announces, speaking mostly for her own benefit. She points to the forest, and makes a running motion with two fingers, then holds up one finger again. "Other. One gnome." Then she holds up one finger on each hand, bringing them together. "One gnome and one gnome. Two gnome."

She holds up three fingers, raises an eyebrow, and tilts her head. "Three gnome?" Four fingers. "Four gnome?" Two fingers again. "Two gnome?"

The gnome holds up a finger...but then points it over Betsy's shoulder. There is a sudden crashing sound in the undergrowth of the forest, and a terrible growling squonk...

"I got him"
Atani take out a longsword as he walks towards the beastie. When he's face to face he'll give it a solid thwack with the broad of his blade. Just trying to knock it over.

Oh fuck, Owlbear.
Atani has a bare moment to realize the enormity of his error as he comes nose-to-beak with a very irate - and real owlbear. The owlbear gently mauls the elf with its claws (Atani takes 6 points of damage), swiveling its head and letting out bleating squonks.

The gnome, who has soiled himself, suddenly ducks into the remains of the owlbear costume and returns with a strange whistle carved from bone. Seeing the irate feathered beast, however, he seems at a loss as to what to do with it.

Sir Spastis leaps to the defense of his companion.

"STAND FAST AND COUNTER ATTACK - THE GOD OF DEATH FAVORS US! FOUL BEAST, YOU SHALL FEAR THE REAPER!"

Xaxus casts cause fear on the "oh fuck, owlbear".

The effect of Xaxus' spell is immediate; the mighty owlbear shudders, its great eyes crossing as if focused on the end of its beak for a tenth of a heartbeat, and then it pisses itself and streaks off into the woods away from the party with all the speed it can muster.

The gnome, still grasping the owlbear call, immediately starts at this, and stares first at the woods where the other gnome disappeared to and then at the entrance of the crypt. The poor creature is obviously in some distress, and inches first one way and then the other.

(assuming there isn't a charging minotaur in the way)

"Oh no, no more of that! Two owlbears is enough for one day." Betsy says to the gnome, making a grab for the whistle.

The gnome is practically crying and starts pantomiming, getting down on all fours and squonking, then acting surprised or scared and running away a few steps...and coming back.