They are delivering a huge shipment of a massive painted blue statue of a dolphins head - it is an artifact of the blue age that was until recently the property of the king of Tyr who has since died. They are moving it from Tyr to Encampment of Poortool’s Horde. They will also know that Tithian has taken over from his father - he has signed off on the large iron shipment. The horde have agreed to pay a vast sum for it. The details of the amount is not known to these common men.
In reality Poortool’s Horde is buying the statue on behalf of the Blue Halflings who have already paid them for it and their fee in gold. The halflings could not order it themselves as they are only a rumour in Tyr. But funding bandits near their rivals cities is fine. In reality Tithian is a member of the Dead Snakes and in on the deception - the ruse is aimed at the other power players in Tyr - the noble and merchant houses who are not part of the conspiracy.
The Blue Halflings intend to melt the head down to make swords out of as under the blue paint it is made of steel. They know this because they made the statue all those years ago.
The halflings have left Cleft Rock Well heavily guarded. There's a campsite stretching in 30ft radius from the rock with around 50 halflings. While most of the blues have gone to the fort one has stayed to organise the other halflings - Lo Vont. They are there to guard one of the blue halfling who is still in stasis and most importantly the dark lens which will be fixed atop the Pristine Tower to make it work.
They will also find tunnels that led to a treasury - now empty. Tunnels led further down to cavernous rooms - carved out the rock. There they will find the dark lens - too large to be taken through the tunnels as they currently are.
The Dark Lens looks like a polished egg-shaped orb of obsidian about the size of a small kank. It glows and hums with a dark magical energy - it seems to call to the players - if they touch it they will get visions of the lens atop the Pristine Tower - they will see it being used to forge the Key of Darkness.
Inside the labyrinth of tunnels inside the Rock they will find the cocoons of the halflings - that kept them in stasis. One of the cocoons didn’t reanimate its occupant and the body is still in it - blue skinned. Naked. It is a slimy pod but attached to a stone plinth.
The coin that the party has opens the cocoon / chamber - the others have been opened - a slot for it is on the front of the stone plinth below the cocoon. If they use the coin Makas will emerge from the pod.
He will believe that they are working for Rajaat and that they will be in on his plans. He himself is a shaman who was contacted by Rajaat in his dreams while asleep in the cocoon.
AT THE FORT
There they are using the same bio magic they used to create the other races to create monstrous warriors.
They plan on using this army to take over Pristine Tower. Under the orders of Rajaat they plan to use the tower's power to first create a new Key of Darkness - the blues being the only beings capable of such magical engineering- then they plan to double cross and destroy Dregoth once he and Rajaat have defeated the other Sorcerer Kings & Queens.
This information can be gleaned by spying on the camp. They have created a massive smelter to heat and pour the steel from the statue of the dolphin. The plans are all written in an ancient script that requires a History Check - the better they do the more detail they get about the halfling's plans.