"Ooooh," Sverix says, taking in the elf's words. "Let's see... let's keep the bedroll, the candles, the rope... and I'll take this brooch."
He adds it to his carry-sack--a start to his own hoard!
"Now, I think that tunnel over there just goes back where we started," he points at the west tunnel, "So we should probably go back to that fork and take the other passage, right?"
Sverixalint turns to go back to the fork they'd been at earlier.
The elf sighs at your enthusiasm. "We should."
The narrow tunnel winds around a rock outcropping, but some investigating does indeed reveal the cavern you woke up in.
The backpack was broken(you kind of burned one of the straps), and left behind. Anevia added the rations to her own satchel. It looks a bit heavy on her though, especially with her leg.
"Okay, let's go back to that fork! Now at least when it's time to rest there will be one bedroll..." he says, trailing off a bit. "Don't worry, I'm fine sleeping on the ground," Sverix adds, helpfully.
Not wanting to ponder the implications for too long, he turns and leads off back to the other passageway they had not yet taken.
Horgus picks up the candlestubs, and they disappear into the folds of his resplendent if stained cloak.
Anevia grabs the rope, and coils it before slinging it across her torso, then places the elf's hand on her shoulder, before following you onwards.
You go back to the fork, and follows the unexplored tunnel east. This tunnel seems less hallway-like, and more like a vertical slash in the rock. It's cramped in the sides, and there's not really much space to put your feet. It's also the longest tunnel yet. The air is fresher here, however, and a faint breeze, almost undetectable, vafts from on ahead.
The cramped sides of the tunnel give way to a small chamber.
Several mounds of rock and debris lie in heaps, recently fallen from the walls and ceiling. Now and then, bits of dust settle from cracks in the stone above.
Across from the mounds, another tunnel leads on.
Sverix stops for a moment and looks around nervously.
"We should be careful moving through here," he states, uncertainly.
You hear some distinctly irritated hissing from behind one of the piles.
"I hear something hissing!" Sverix whispers loudly. "Wait here, I'll go take a look in case it's dangerous!"
Before anyone could gainsay him, the little dragon was creeping his way towards the noise, though he tried to keep some distance from where he thought the sound came from.
You're pretty sure you know what pile it's coming from.
You creep up on the pile of rocks, when the hissing suddenly stops. Carefully, you investigate, circling the pile until you're almost there, and you pounce on whatever is hiding. Aha! Except the space behind the pile is empty.
Then, you're attacked from behind! A snake that's even larger than you lunges at you; it seems to be wounded.
,
Sverix yelps, more in surprise than from pain. He whirls and slashes at the snake with his claws, then snaps at it with his teeth.
You chew up the snake pretty well. It goes limp, but you're not feeling so good.
Your muscles are cramping like hell, btu the worst of it seems to be over.
"Don't worry! I killed it!" Sverix shouts back to the others. He decides not to mention the part about feeling like he got poisoned.
The young dragon eyes his kill. Unlike the cockroaches earlier, this snake actually looks appetizing, as long as he avoids the front end where the poison is. He decides to go ahead and have a couple of bites, starting near its tail.
Horgus brings over the lamp. There's a general atmosphere of awkwardness as the group are reminded that you're a carnivore. Aravashnial seems to be taking it the best; perhaps because he's blind, perhaps because he has vastly more experience with esoteric creatures than either of Horgus or Anevia.
Either way, the group waits for you to move on. Anevia appears to appreciate the short rest, leaning against one of the walls with a pained grunt.
The snake is pretty tasty; you're used to warmer foodstuffs, but even so.
It doesn't take long for Sverix to eat his fill. It's only after he's done that he looks up and realizes how awkward the whole situation was.
"Oh... sorry, I didn't mean to disturb anyone," he says, hanging his head slightly. "I just thought it would help us stretch our supplies out longer."
After a moment, however, he shakes his head. "Well, we should keep going, right? It looks like this is the only way to go."
He leads the way to the tunnel at the other side of the chamber.
"I'm sure it's quite all right, Sverixalint, as long as we're not too long impeded," Aravashnial remarks. You move on down the tunnel. The breath and slope of the tunnel varies wildly for the next half an hour, from walls so close they brushe your shoulders when you move, to twenty-feet wide halways.
You come to a crossroads; one leads down, the other leads up. The air is stale in the upper tunnel, and fresher in the lower one.
Sverix sniffs at the air in both tunnels. "The air's better in the lower tunnel. Let's go that way!"
Without waiting for a response he heads into the lower tunnel.
You lead the group down along a long slope. The tunnel opens up to a chamber with several natural stone pillars creating a sort of arcade along the right side.
There's a deafening noise here, emitting from a 5ft. diameter pit in the floor. It's a shaft dropping beyond the limits of your darkvision, presumably leading to a roaring underground river, deep below.
Inside the arcade, you spot still, humanoid shapes.
"Wait!" Sverix whispers... then realizes that whispering is probably too soft with the roar of the river, and speaks loudly enough for those following him to hear, hoping it's not so loud the waiting figures can hear him, as well. "It looks like there's someone over there! Umm... why don't you stay here, and I'll go take a look?"
Carefully Sverix advances--not sneaking, but walking slowly, waiting to see if the humanoids react.
You creep forwards, leaving the circle of light behind you.
As you enter the arcade, it becomes clear that the humanoids are statues. However, to your surprise, a large, winged shape drops on you from above. You're attacked by a giant bat!
,
"Ow!" Sverix roars. He turns his roar into a brief prayer to Apsu for healing.
Sverixalint retaliates against the flying menace with claw and fang, attacking with wild abandon.
You wound the thing heavily, and it screeches, trying to dig its teeth into your neck.
,
Sverix whines in pain as the bat bites deeply into him, but he struggles on, putting his all into one last effort to gut the big bat before it kills him.
You kill the bat, and it collapses on top of you. It's heavy; although optimised for flying, and lighter than its size might suggest, it's still several times your own body weight.
"Ow!" This time Sverix's shout is as much from surprise as pain. He wriggles around, managing to get out from under the corpse.
"It's okay!" Sverixalint roars back to the rest of his group, trying to be heard above the stream's own roar. "I killed the giant bat!"
He notes its corpse as a possible meal, but he's not nearly hungry now after that snake. The rushing water far below reminds him that he hasn't had any water for some time now, though. It seems to dangerous to try to get any from that hole, but maybe there would be something up ahead?
"You can come now! The other things I saw are just statues!" He adds aloud. He looks around as he waits for the rest of the group to catch up to him.
He also pulls out his wand and waves it over his wounds as he waits.
The bat has a musky smell to it, noticeable even over the blood. The statues themselves are of warriors clad in plate and mail, hewn from the same rock that make up your surroundings. Longswords and sunbursts are a recurring motif on all three.
In the cieling above you, a number of fissures rise, growing narrower and narrower as they go. You're pretty sure you couldn't fit through even the widest one, but a faint breeze does come down from them.
Horgus raises the lamp, and the island of light closes in on you. "What happened? Are we safe?" Horgus beady eyes narrow as he tries to keep track of you in the darkness.
"A giant bat attacked me, but I killed it!" Sverix proudly states. "I haven't seen anything else dangerous."
He looks around at the statues. "Do you think these statues are of old crusaders?" he asks.
"I don't know. Why are they down here? They were carved from the rock right here, noone could have moved them." Anevia traces the long hair of one warrior with her fingertips.
Aravashnial deliberates. "It is good that you handled it, but if you face great opposition, alert me. I may be blind, but I remain a riftwarden." He stands a little straighter.
"Hah!" Horgus snipes.
Aravashnial looks like he wants to say something, but backs down and changes the subject.
"As for the statues, if I am right, they will have been made by the mongrelmen. They would be descendants of the first crusaders, recall?"
There is no apparent exits, beyond the vertical shaft in the floor, and the mouth of the tunnel that leads back up to the higher caves.
"Right," Sverix says, "I remember. Next time something attacks, I'll yell and tell you if it's bad."
He looks around one last time. "It looks like this is a dead end, though, because I don't think it's a good idea to go down that hole. So I guess we go the other way."
Sverixalint pauses for just a moment longer. "Ummm... I'm sorry, Aravashnial, but... could you tell me what Riftwardens are? I only got here a little before all of... that happened, so I don't know much about all of the different groups here and everything."
After hearing the elf's answer, Sverix leads the way back to the branch not yet taken.
You begin to retrace your steps, back up the sloping tunnel.
"We're a coalition of planeswalkers who oppose the creation of breaches, such as the one at the center of this mess. We were instrumental in raising the Wardstones; although I'm afraid that the inner workings of our order is a topic exclusive to members."
"Conspiracy theorists with a penchant for revisionist history, I say," is Horgus' take on the issue.
Aravashnial continues heedlessly, although the set of his mouth seems to indicate a frown. "As for the fractions of Kenabres, I fear few enough will weather the attack that such knowledge may be rendered obsolete." This has Anevia shaking her head, which is about the most conversation you've had out of her while walking; it seems moving around is tough enough on her leg that she elects to stay quiet.
"Oh..." Sverix takes a moment to process it. "That sounds important."
He glances back at Horgus. "Umm... is there some kind of... problem between the two of you?" He asks.
"I published some theories on the inner workings of crusader politics that, perhaps in retrospect, did not have the merit I thought. But I have recounted in full, taking back any and all allegations."
"A whole lot of good it did to recoup my losses, that apology. 'I'm sorry', eh?"
"What would you have me do, mr. Gwerm?" Aravashnial is clearly exasperated. It's also clear that he's not used to being on this side of the conversation.
You retrace your steps back to the diverging tunnels, and plod along the path you have yet to explore.
An hour of walking, at Anevia's pace, sees you entering another cave. This one is truly cavernous; the cieling is beyond the range of your darkvision, and there's enough room that you can't see more than one wall as you leave the tunnel.
"Umm... can we just leave that behind for now?" Sverix hesitantly suggests. "I think not being killed by demons is more important than the past right now."
After reaching the big cavern, Sverixalint looks around. "We'll have to be careful in a big place like this," he said. "Let's follow the wall first and see what the edge of it is like."
The two of them fall silent, at least. You're not anything has been resolved, but both of them seem unwilling to continue the argument, so at least there's that.
You follow the cavern along the eastern curve - it's hard to tell, seeing only part of it at the time, but it seems roughly circular, you think. You've turned about some 55 degrees when you spot a building in the cave, towards the center. It's squat, and apparently hewn from stone in one piece. You can't spot any windows from here, but there's a doorway leading inside.
At the same time, 60ft. ahead of you, you see the mouth of a tunnel, leading away from the chamber.
"Let's look in this building," Sverix suggests, "Though first..."
He bows his head and chants a prayer to Apsu. "Apsu vernda vog mína og blessa fangs mín." That done, he goes through the doorway.
As you draw close, you note that there's two smaller structures behind this one, both of them collapsed. As you draw closer, you note the relief on the wall, an 8ft. high hammer, painted on the wall beside the entrance.
The doorway opens into a small corridor (20ft. by 5ft.), with a carved stone basin up against the back wall. The basin is made from a pillar of stone that rises to about hip height, with the top of it hollowed out. Runes you cannot read are carved into the rim.
A pair of stone double doors, each of them carrying the same hammer from outside, lead beyond.
Sverix quickly glances around the corridor, but, not seeing anything that catches his interest, continues on to the doors and tries to push them open.
They are well balanced, and slide open at your push.
Inside is several rows of weathered stone benches, facing a small podium with an alter on it.
On the front bench sits a grey shape, a humanoid figure covered in dust and cobwebs and swathed in grey cloth robes, with the hood drawn.
Some debris lies at its feet, but it's hard to make out what exactly it is from here.
Instantly wary, Sverixalint slowly makes his way forward. "Hello?" he calls out, on the off chance the person is actually alive.
No reaction.
Cautiously Sverix circles around, trying to see what's in front of the figure without getting too close to it just now.
You stalk the edge of the pews, moving closer to the alter and the figure. Turning the corner, you see a warhammer lying at the figure's feet.
The warhammer is of little interest to Sverix, but where a weapon is, other things of value might be, also. He carefully walks forward towards the figure.
You stalk forward, one limb at a time. By the time you've made it to the warhammer, you can look up under the hood of the robe. The figure is a dwarf, covered in a deep layer of dust, to the point that it's impossible to tell if the wrinkly skin is really supposed to be grey, of if there is natural color under there.
There's a ring of golden metal on one of its hands which are clasped in his lap front of him.
His eyes are closed as if in prayer or meditation.
This doesn't seem right to Sverix... nothing alive would have that much dust on it, but something dead should be rotted, right? He chants his prayers to Apsu again, refreshing his blessings, then cautiously taps the warhammer with one claw, suspecting something will happen if he disturbs it.
*Clink*
Nothing happens.
Okay... Sverix cautiously picks up the warhammer and cautiously uses it to prod the dwarf.
The dwarf sits still - its flesh is a lot harder than you'd have thought.