You and the Gnomes sit down at their table.
"It's like this," says one of them.
"Myself and my associates are merchants - rather wealthy ones, if I do say so," he pauses to stroke his fine clothes. "At any rate, we own several caravans which transport fabric and other goods from this city to the ports, and recently, Goblins have begun to attack them, members of a tribe called Black Fang. Not only that, there are hardly ever any bodies. The goods are taken, but so are the people. I doubt they try to hide the evidence - people have caught them at it before, and at any rate, they leave their corpses there. We don't know what happens to them. We've lost most of our goods, and if this keeps up, we'll be ruined! We hired some escorts," he nods at the table where the ruffians were sitting, "But their prices are so outrageous, we might as well give our goods to the Goblins! You all seem to be good folks, and warriors and seasoned adventurers, at that. Will you help us? We can pay you in gold."