With their recently acquired knowledge shared between themselves, the party laid plans to head off east and see the apparent new management of the eastern mines with their own eyes. Zachariah Hallowhold raised a question to Qalia Sugarfuel for whether she was ready and willing to fight other goblins should all come to head -- which Qalia had no real quarrels with whatsoever. She knew well that the Venture Co weren't to be trusted.
Before they all could head off, however, Qalia together with Jay Lin Qilan struck a plan to prepare some food. Cupcakes, to be specific. The rest of the party took the meantime to buy supplies and prepare their mounts for the journey, as well as drop by a local blacksmith.
With their cupcakes prepared and ready to go, Qalia decided to try and butter up a deal with Kauth Rockhorn, steward of the House of the Outrunners. In exchange for the cupcakes and their recipe, she wanted to alleviate the party's living expenses at the House. Kauth was not an easy tauren to move, and was upfront rather unwilling to go along with such a proposal. The party could tell that he had a few things to think about, though. They were exceptionally good cupcakes, after all.
It took the party a night over out in the wild to make their journey from Bloodhoof Village to the mines. They tried to make a silent approach, sneak in if they could, but they were quickly spotted and a small skirmish ensued against a group of goblins. Once those goblins were all dealt with, the party took measures to lead their mounts somewhere safe while they were all away.
The party did have one complication at hand; the mine and the camp were all goblins, so anyone not a goblin would stick out like a sore thumb. This turned to Qalia together with Zachariah investigating closer, while the rest snuck through to a safe location within the camp. Because Zach had one trick still up his sleeve; his trusty Hat of Diguise and a little effort to walk along on his knees, and he could pass the role of a goblin reasonably well enough.
Their investigation led them to two places. First to the camp offices, where a goblin by the name of Jenni let slip a frustrated rant about the extreme hours and breakneck pace of the mining operation, just so that The Foreman on the site could impress The Boss -- which had to be this Vishaz Deadbomb the party had previously learned of.
The second was the camp's lodge and mess hall, where they encountered a pair of shift cooks -- Kex and Elzard -- who were stressing to get everything ready before the next lunch shift at the mine. By the look of the clock inside the hall, that time was right around the corner. Just enough time for the party to slip into some hiding spots and not be caught. It all went well for the most part, except for Zachariah, though his skills in bluffing managed to sell off white lies that let him slip past the returning goblins without a fuss.
Now that the goblins were all coming back to the loge, maybe the boss and the foreman would be among them? They tried to sleuth as best as they could, Gan Jedi kept eagle-eyes out for any two figures who could match what they reckoned they'd be after, but it turned out that the boss and foreman both were both still up at the mines.
More curious yet, banter from the returning goblins claimed the pair were working on some kind of a robot. The party reconvened, and then off toward the mine they went. If most of the goblins were away having lunch, perhaps whoever were still up there would be much less of a hassle.