Chrome frowns at this, "Now hold on, I'm not a hired merc, to kill for money. I will still go and confront the Gremlins, if they're as bad as you imply they should attack on sight and be unwilling to talk, so we will probably do that. But what we're after is information. We're looking for a friend of ours that came this way but never returned."
Climb [1d20+6] = 6+6 = 12
Kayla makes the climb down the slope and listens to the female. She rolls her eyes a little and sighs at her companion, knowing this is just how he is. When the skulk responds, she pats him on the shoulder and says,
"See? Easy."
To the female skulk, she asks,
"Is there anything that we should know about these gremlins? And what are they stealing from you that warrants a death sentence? Of course, they are just vermin...who would want to save 'em?"
The female skulk grows angrier. "Your friends kill my people and leave," she hisses.
She turns to Kayla. "Gremlins take what is ours. That is why." She seems more confused than angry over Kayla's line of questioning.
Getting no sign that Kayla even heard her psychic message, Weyna sends the same message to Chrome.
Message spell to Chrome: "They're skulks. They kill whole families and loot them."
Recognizing the magic, Chrome resists the heavy urge to turn to face Weyna. "I would be interested in hearing how these events went down, both from yourselves and whoever still lives among the group that killed your people. Apologies if the actions were due to misconceptions isn't going to solve everything, but it's certainly a start to preventing the fostering of worse relations."
As he turns as though to consider for a moment, he takes the chance to return the whisper to Kayla before she unbinds him as the recipient, "As a race, they may have such tendencies, but i do not know the crimes of the ones before us." His stance seeming to stay as a middle-ground between every group. Until there's irrefutable confirmation to the contrary, he seems to want to believe the Gremlins can be dealt with peacefully,these Skulks in particular aren't actively involved in such horrific actions, and that the deaths of their people was due to a misconception causing a quarrel between them and the other (human?) group.
Returning to face the female skulk he continues, "I don't see a reason we cannot move along this path for now. As it stands now, we should be able to get your stuff back if nothing else. What were these... things that were yours? Or was it food? If it was a consumable material that may make matters of returning your possessions more complicated." Clearly not thinking about shortening his lines of question for clarity to the creature, instead treating it as intelligent as he would anyone else.
She does not seem to care for the tact Chrome is taking with negotiations. "You kill all gremlins or not?"
Kayla looks at Chrome. For her part, she was up for killing some gremlins if it helped them find their friends. But, she also knew her friend was not to be pushed beyond a certain point.
Still, she gets his attention and nods an affirmative, hoping he will follow her lead and agree to the skulk woman's request...
"We will insure that which is yours is no longer taken by the Gremlins." Chrome surmised, clearly still refusing to rule out the possibility for negotiations... even if those said "negotiations" are with ... gremlins.
He turns to Kayla with a frown, clearly not wanting to outright agree to killing without even the premise of a desire for conversation with any creature capable of speech. "I'll approve of Kayla's decision in this matter." He lied, deciding him talking any more would drag things out and lead to potentially worse outcomes for everyone, skulks and them.
With Chrome and Kayla, at least, forewarned, Weyna goes back to the passage they came from for a moment, disappearing from view. She counts to ten, then comes back to the group that chose to not go with the skulk.
"Found it." She holds up her glowing crystal. She glances around the waiting area, cautious for other skulks nearby.
"Oh good, I was worried. I know hopw important that is to you."