"Let me handle this," The Shield Maiden replied before she turned to the fighting gnomes, "Calm down, all of you, please calm down! True, Irzen is a Drow but he's on our side. He's a friend. Now, can you tell us more about this overseer? And how many Bullywugs he has working for him?"

Well half of the gnomes stopped fighting, the others continued their brawl until they collided with a tree. With the fight finally done, Gimble brought up both hands, "Alright. Alright. You've made yer point, lass. The overseer is some kind of changeling and its got a lot of bullywugs working for it. Our village is nearby but our people are wary of strangers now because of what the overseer has done to them."

"And what did the overseer do to them?" Serna asked once more, "And does this overseer have a name?"

Nathosot pipped in, "Or worse feed those of us who can no longer work in the mine to the worm. A purple worm."

Lazheros's eyes widened, "What!"

Irzen listened quietly saying not a word.

"A purple worm?!" Serna asked in pure disbelief, "I've heard of earthworms but I've never heard of a PURPLE worm. What in the Realm is that?!"

"It's not as big as the tall folk say they can get but it's big enough to scare and force us to work in the mine." The third gnome said.

"Isn't a purple worm an underground/underdark creature, Irzen?" Alyson looked at the swordsman.

"Yes. It is." The Swordsman replied with a dismissive wave, "They're burrowers and they're easy to tame. My people use them to dig tunnels so we can travel beyond the confines of Naermon Nithren. We use those tunnels to trade with others, work with others, even attack others during times of war."

Irzen added with hunched shoulders, "Purple worms are big and slow. When you encounter one all you have to do is be mindful of three things: one, their size they can get quite big and squash you to death; two, their mouths they can get quite large and with their row upon row of serrated teeth they can grind, tear and rend you to death; and three their tail which they can use to sting you to death. If you can be mindful of those three things, then you'll be fine. Piece of cake."

Caliaphy appeared and gasped, "Eeeeew! I don't wanna become worm food! Nope! Nope! Nope!"

"What is with you and names, lass?" Gimble shook his head. "We don't its name and we don't want to know its name. We just want it to go away and leave our people alone."

Lazheros let a big sigh, "Serna, try rewording your questions to them and perhaps you'll getting a better answer, hmm."

"In other words, we'll have to be like the Scooby Doo gang of the Realm except we don't have a hound to sniff out the bad guys." Alyson added.