
"The man said nothing about bringing the stone back to him" Alexi answers Aerendyl as he takes a step back from the stone "He just said that he wanted us to clear the goblins and their boss from this cave so that...what was it he said...the stone could serve its purpose or something to that effect."
Noticing that the stone extends below ground, Aerendyl tries digging the floor of the cave with his hands to see if he can expose more of it.
"I don't know if we should take orders from mysterious stones but I'm in favour of protecting the emperor" he says. "But since some goblins nearly killed us, I'm not sure our protection would mean much!"
You crouch to start digging.... And realise that if you want to uncover any more stone you will need more serious tools. The hard packed earth hasn't been disturbed in years, leaving it as solid as the well formed roads that connect the empire.
"From the looks of things, I think we may have pretty much cleared this area" Alexi tells Aerendyl, "A couple of goblins may have escaped, but from the number of bedrolls and such in here it would seem we took care of the majority, and without their bosses those stragglers are not likely to be much of a threat to the village by themselves."
Alexi looks over to the obelisk "I think we should leave this here and head back to the village lest we miss our appointment with Brennic's lady friend. We can let the villagers know about the goblins that did escape so that they can be on guard and then return to the city to let our white haired friend know that we have done our part here."
Brennic appears to carefully consider all that has been said.
"Hmm, so it means empire then. Well, we should head to Aerocion and seek out this threat. And yes we should try to meet this mysterious woman. Do you think it could be a trap? No, no-one would lay an ambush outside Sune's temple, the risk of incurring Her anger would be too great. We should be off!"