The Forgotten Race

Asulfur walks out of the pool with his hammer in hand ready for whatever may attack him and continues to make his way up the ramp. He arrives at the hole and hangs his hammer on his belt, then grabs the vine and starts to climb it out to begin exploring this new location.

He stands upon solid ground and looks for a suitable path to take, but doesn't see a decent path anywhere. He lets out a breath, then heads in a direction to begin clearing a path through the forest saying, "Well I don't know what else I can do but tear out a few of these brambles to make a path through here, I have to get to an opening somewhere so I can find out what else is here."

After spending an unknown number of hours breaking and tearing the brambles from his path, he finally comes to an open field where he sees a herd of strangely colored four-legged ponies grazing. As the creature looks up and notices him there, it brays in fright and takes off running away with the herd following it. He scratches his head in wonder at the curious sight he just saw, when he hears a growling coming from nearby. Turning towards the sound, he looks to see a wolf covered in branches and bark looking at him with a hungry look in its eyes. He pulls out his hammer and shouts at the creature, "Come on and attack me then beast, I don't have all day!

The wolf then snarls angrily at the large, strange two-legged creature and charges, looking forward to a good meal.

Asulfur readies his hammer to strike the beast down, waiting for the best moment to swing. As the wolf gets within range, he swings hard to cave in the beast's skull. He watches with amazement as the wolf's entire body collapses into a pile of debris, and rummages through the pile to find any fleshy remains. Surprise is on his face as he doesn't see any blood or organs in it, finding only twigs and bark until he discovers a small glowing gem at the bottom. He picks it up in curiosity and stuffs it in a pocket to study later when he hears multiple soft hoofsteps coming towards him, he turns and notices that the strangely colored four-legged ponies are returning.

He stands still so he doesn't frighten them away and waits to see what they are going to do when one of them nickers towards another, who begins to cautiously approach them with one of their ears pointing towards him and the other is laying back. He puts his hammer away and looks at the curious pony and says, "It's alright, I ain't gonna hurt you."

The curious mare stops near the creature and nervously sniffs them thinking, 'Why send me to investigate?' looking for any indication they may be a threat. Finding nothing about the creature threatening, she settles and nickers back to the others, lowering her head down to begin grazing as well as show the others it is safe.

Asulfur watches as the others start grazing around him, apparently not being afraid of him anymore, and tries to reach out to touch one of them. As his hand is about to touch their body, they step away and continue to graze. He tries a couple more times to touch one of them, but fails and stops trying. He instead looks at them closer, noticing that they are shorter than a normal pony, not sturdy enough for a dwarf to ride, however, they are big enough to work with them in Erebor pulling carts. He then looks up to see the sun starting to sink towards the west then turns around and makes his way back towards the hole he came from, jumping down through the opening and landing at the start of the tunnel.

Meanwhile, back in Erebor at the top landing by the cavern

Banil stands near the bell, waiting for it to ring out a signal, and looks over to his friend Osil saying, "Ah wonder what's takin Asulfur so long to explore an opening in the wall where that chunk fell from, he should have reported in an hour ago." He waits to hear the bell ring out a signal for a few more minutes until he starts to hear it ring out and says, "He's found something interesting, ah wonder what it could be."

Asulfur watches as the top landing comes into sight and gets out of his harness, then makes his way towards his overseer Banil to report what he has found down there. He smiles and says, "Sorry it took me so long to report back, I discovered something that you need to see with your own eyes to believe."

His eyebrows rise in curiosity saying, "Please tell me that ya didn't find another Arkenstone, the one from before caused nothing but grief."

The thinner dwarf shakes his head and replies, "Oh this is definitely not another Arkenstone, it is even better than that because I have discovered something that leads to a different location that is not like anything I have seen before. Come see it for yourself sir and come armed because there are critters out there that will attempt to eat you, I found this odd glowing green gem inside one of them."

Banil takes the gem as his eyes widen with interest and hands the gem to another and says to them, "Take this to the Jewelers so they can examine it, ah'm gonna get mah armor and find out what Asul found down below."

Asul helps his overseer onto the platform and ties his rope to the anchor, and leads him down into the tunnel saying, "We will have to jump a couple of gaps, but they aren't large enough to worry a dwarf in heavy armor."

After following him down the tunnel and jumping the small gaps, they arrive in a cavern with a pool emitting white and gold ripples of light saying, "What is this place you have found Asul, it is very wondrous indeed."

He looks to Banil and says, "I do not know sir, but if you go into the pool and immerse your whole body, you will feel a harmless tingle followed by a slight pinch. You will then find yourself in a different cave, so just exit the pool and I will guide you to the place I found."

Banil watches as his friend heads into the pool and immerses his body, the pool emits a brief bright flash that momentarily blinds him. He blinks his eyes a few times and sees that his friend has vanished, his eyes widen in surprise as he says, "No way, this is simply not possible..." He then follows after him and immerses himself under the water, feeling a tingle and a pinch shortly after dunking his head below the water. Returning to the surface of the water, he looks around at a different cave saying, "Woah...this is most definitely not the cave we were just in."

Asul grins at him saying, "You haven't seen anything yet, there are ponies out there that are too small to ride, yet just the right size to work in Erebor. They are small and timid at first until they learn you are no threat to them, so just speak gently and softly to them."

The portly dwarf carries his battleax in his hands and follows Asul up the ramp and through the tunnel. Climbing up the vine and getting his battleax back, he looks around at the new location and feels the need to explore it. He follows his friend down the path he cleared out, arriving at a field stretching out into a distance. Looking around the field to find a herd of ponies standing a ways from the forest's edge, he starts to make his way towards them to get a closer look saying, "Wow, by my beard this is the most amazing thing ah've ever seen in mah entire life. Ah think ya have just found a different land altogether Asul, one that is nothing like the one we come from. We will have to show this to our king to find out what he thinks about this, let's head back and tell him about this at once!" He then turns around and is about to run back to the pool when he hears some growling and squealing coming from the forest around him, holding his battleax at the ready along with his friend.

They watch the forest closely before seeing some wolves made out of wood head towards them, noticing almost immediately what made those squeals. Asul sees the creatures sitting on the backs of the wood wolves and yells, "Goblins are riding those wolves, be ready for the attack! The wolves fall apart when they die, so just smash their head and slaughter them all!"

The goblin leader squeals out a command to attack and the hunting pack of ten goblins and ten Timber Wolves charges at their unknown enemy.

Banil and Asul endure the attack and butcher the entire group of wolves and goblins, collecting the glowing green gems from the wolves before piling the corpses up and setting them aflame. They then hang their weapons across their backs and make their way back to the hole, eager to report this find to their king.