Tove has a go at finding some food for the group but returns empty handed and dejectedly pulls out a ration pack.
The poor weather in the morning does nothing to improve the mood and Tove shivers and she sits meditating on her spells for the day.
You head out to continue your exploration and mapping of the northern hills of the Greenbelt. By mid morning the drizzle has become more of a steady, soaking rain, making for a wholly unpleasant day.
The rain lasts all day long and the temperature seems to be dropping, or perhaps it just seems that way as you are absolutely soaked to the bone, but none-the-less you complete what you intended to for the day and are able to find a hill top to camp on that keeps you out of most of the standing water. Midway through the night the damned rain finally stops. Even though you are miserable most of the night, at least nothing shows up to try to make a meal of you in the night.
You awaken to a cool, bordering on cold morning, ready to continue your exploration.
Tove shivers through the cold night, glad to find the rain has stopped when she wakes for her watch. She hangs her damp clothes in the hope that they'll dry off by the morning.
Thankfully her Ulfen blood means she is able to shake off the cold weather and avoid getting sick, at least for now.
She prepares her spells and waits for the others to wake.
"Shall we head west first? then north back to Bokken's through where the berries should be?"
Thankfully her Ulfen blood means she is able to shake off the cold weather and avoid getting sick, at least for now.
She prepares her spells and waits for the others to wake.
"Shall we head west first? then north back to Bokken's through where the berries should be?"
Jacobus does his best to squeeze out water from his clothes. His previous experience with his father's caravans had always meant that he could sleep inside a covered wagon, away from the rain.
"Aye, head west but let's explore those areas where we just traveled to get to bandit's camp before we go back to Oleg's."
He turned to the rest of them, "Anyone want to bet on how our repentant bandits are doing?"
------------
"The reserve in our food supply should be there as a reserve, not to do some more late exploring. Even that will not be enough to explore the forests we travelled through unless we have luck when hunting, which is not a thing to be relied upon. And why should we worry Oleg and 'Lana by arriving back late?"
He pulls his hood up tighter. "Bracing weather, eh? I might see if Oleg can find us some furs suitable for colder times."
Rufus is yet again unable to find any food over the next couple of nights and contents to eat the meat I brought for him. I look to him sulking slightly and spend my watch huddled up to him. I clean my shield of any dirt and wake up early to wash myself and make myself presentable once again.
Most of the rain is deflected by the armour Rufus and I wear, but I still shudder every time a trickle of rain water runs down my spine. "If we are nearing those berries that Bokken wanted, it would make sense to grab and return them now." I look over at Jacobus, "I feel they are being useful, I doubt they would rather the alternative anyway."
"Torsten is right about our reserves, it's a dangerous game to depend on them, we should grab the berries and make our way back." Raz says as he sniffles, it seems the rain didn't do well for him over the night.
"Shall we head west first? then north back to Bokken's through where the berries should be?"
Ivo mutters, "I should've gotten a poncho." He fiddles with his gear to keep his tools from getting wet.
"Probably best to check in regularly until our ex-bandits have settled more into 'normal life'," he adds.
Only Razarak seems the worse for wear when the party breaks camp and heads off to the west. The weather is cold, but thankfully dry as you continue along through the low rolling hills.
By mid-day you are starting to see some evidence of craggy rock formations scattered among the hills. Despite not being his best after yesterday's miserable weather, Razarak notices a particularly rocky crag rising from the hills here. At the crag’s base is an overgrown 5-foot-wide crack that leads down 20 feet to a 30-foot-diameter cave. The cave wall directly across from the entrance sparkles slightly.
(sickened)
(with Strauch)
"ooo sparkly *sneeze*"
Jacobus nears the 'sparkly' to see what it is.
"Yeah, it sure is sparkly. Probably fool's gold."
---------
"Fool's gold or truesilver, I am not settling down to become a miner. We should check to see if bandits or stranger things have been using this cave however." With that Torsten jumps down to check the cave for tracks or other signs of habitation, his goat at his side.
I look around the outside of the cave before dismounting and climbing inside, leaving Rufus outside to keep guard.
I look at the glittery walls, "Uhhh ... this isn't fools gold ... this is actual gold!"
Searching around the outside of the cave and the cave's mouth, Torsten sees nothing that would indicate humanoid activity.
While checking the inside of the cave, the young wizard does find what appears to be boot tracks that seem to vanish into the southern wall of the cave.
"Wait? This is... gold?" Tove says in awe as she strolls through the entrance to the cave, looking up at the glittering ore veins.
"We should make a note of this location, no doubt the swordlords will want to know about this resource."
"As well as cover the entrance to prevent the bandits from using to fund their crimes" Raz said between sneezes
"Gold? Really? Well, something like this will be a boom to settlement. I can already see a small town being built around the mine."
He then added, "Any idea how big the reserves are?"
The sounds of a spell being cast echo up from the cave, "ithquant arcaniss gazziz". A few moments later the strained voice of a person concentrating on something else adds "Might be owners of this already. With magic even, someone walked through a wall here."
The sounds of a spell being cast echo up from the cave, "ithquant arcaniss gazziz". A few moments later the strained voice of a person concentrating on something else adds "Might be owners of this already. With magic even, someone walked through a wall here."
Jacobus' dream of a bustling mining town came crashing down as the wizard spoke.
With his mace already in his hand, he turned to where the wizard was pointing trying to discern if there was anyone there...
"What's going one Torsten?"
----------
"Nothing this moment, Jacobus. A heel print from a boot there, scuffs and toe prints there and there," pointing out the results of his tracking, "all leading to this wall but not away from it, do you see?"
Jacobus comes over to investigate the cave wall with Torsten, they are just about to walk away when Torsten notices a seam in the otherwise natural cavern.
"Ahah! I have heard this can find hollows... " Torsten gets out his much-abused dagger and starts tapping to see if there is a handle or similar concealed near the seam.
Jacobus also sees the seam once Torsten points it to him, "An entrance? Here let me help."
The inquisitor started to work at the seam trying to open up whatever was so expertly concealed.
Torsten and Jacobus continue to work on the seam in the rock and search for anything else of note. After about twenty minutes of searching, Torsten finally finds a protrusion from the wall, not far from the seam.
Pressing in on the protrusion, a section of the rock wall opens into the cave revealing a steep winding passage heading down into the earth.
A little more searching after the passageway opens reveals the same boot prints heading down into the depths of the earth.
While Torsten and Jacobus and fiddling with the wall of the cave, I am trying to see how much gold there is. But this knowledge is beyond me I turn around to say so, but see the passageway leading into the earth. A little shocked and rather excited I try to look into the mysterious hole, "Shall we?"
"After you." Tove replies to Theo, gesturing toward the passageway.
"Does anyone have any idea who would have built this? It seems a little advanced for the bandits we've seen so far."
"Many strange things live beneath the earth. Not dwarves I think, or they would have claimed some of the land above, but who knows what else lives in the Stolen Lands? Are there fey who carve stone?"
With a few words ("Austratir mitne") and a gesture Torsten sends a line of lights into the passage. "Those won't last long, but they can be conjured again easily enough. If any here have torches or lanterns we might have more stable light. Theo, if you go first I should be able to see past you to guide these lights."
"It could be those Kobolds that the poster wanted to be sorted out? Maybe we could make another ally to fight alongside this Bandit with us."
I reach into my pack and attack something to my shield, then slot a torch into it. Once it has been lit or ready to be lit once the spell goes out, I head on down the hole.
Jacobus also added his own light to the dim setting and followed Theo.
With shield and weapon out, he moved along the cramped tunnel...
"Downward and onward," Raz says as he takes up the back of the formation, checking behind them every now and then.
The party travels down the narrow, twisting corridor. After five hundred feet, and by your best guess over a hunderd feet down, the passage way opens up into a natural cavern. This cavern is essentially fifty feet around and has three passages out, including the one you are entering from.
Slowly you look around the cavern as you find what looks like the after effects of a small skirmish. Three odd looking bodies lay upon the cavern floor. Two of the bodies are bald, with rocky gray skin, a wiry physique, and overly large pale eyes. The remaining body seems to belong to another type of creature, a pale blue humanoid has bulging white eyes, wild hair, and four-fingered hands.
"Uh, what are these creatures and why were they fighting? Is either of them a Kobold?"
"Uh, what are these creatures and why were they fighting? Is either of them a Kobold?"
Jacobus looked at the little beings with curiosity, "I don't think Theo. I know what a kobold looks like and those aren't kobolds."
He turns one over, "Are they fey? What about tracks? Whoever killed must have left for somewhere, right?"
------------
"These gray ones are deep gnomes. Very distant cousins to me! But they, um, they still have a lot of influence from the faerie realm. So they tend to be... unstable? Or a bit more prone to eccentricity. That's a good way to put it."
"If the one side is your cousins and the other is not known, then we should rather visit the first I think. Huh, which direction might they have come from?"
Its difficult to make out in the darkness of the cave, but Torsten finds tracks coming from each of the other passages. The size of the tracks are similar so it is nearly impossible to distinguish which set came from which race.
Jacobus pondered the dilemma for a second, "We're already here and if we can't determine what belongs to whom then let's just pick one way and go with it."
he scanned the area with his magical light and added, "Here, let's take this passage on the left."
I lift my shield again, letting the torch flood the cavern with a warm, soft light. I head down the left passage, trying to keep an eye out for anymore of the strange beings.
Tove follows the others closely. She doesn't like being underground, not being able to see the sky. And knowing that the caverns are inhabited by violent fey wasn't helping.
The party heads off down the left hand passageway. The general slope continues downward as you move along the main passage and bypass a number of narrow and hard to reach tributaries, in favor of the at times cramped 5-foot wide path you are on.
After moving along the passage for about an hour and a half, the passage opens up into a 70-foot diameter cavern with three other paths off of the cavern.
You hear the sounds of pickaxes ringing throughout the cavern. More notably as you advance into the chamber, it appears there is a small camp tucked away in the southeast corner.
As you get close enough for your meager light sources to illuminate the camp, the sound of the pickaxes stop.
Four gray-skinned, small humanoids approach out of the darkness, each brandishing a heavy pick. One of the Svirfneblin with a long white beard steps forward more so than his companions.
"Kakav posao imate toliko daleko ispod zemlje? Jeste li u ligi s Derroom?
Seeing the blank expressions on your faces, he speaks again in another language as he twirls his pick in his hands.
"Dè tha thu cho fada gu h-ìosal air an talamh? A bheil thu ann an coimhcheangal an Derro?"
Jacobus lifted his hands up in what he hoped was the natural gesture of 'we come in peace'.
He spoke slowly, "Common, we speak common. Do you speak common?"
Not understanding what was being said, he looked at his companions, "Anyone have any idea what's being said?"
The white bearded deep gnome eyes Jacobus suspiciously and cocks his head, struggling to understand the inquisitor.
Responding in gnomish "Derro? We dont know who that is. We are on official business from the swordlords of restov. We have been looking for bandits in the area as well as kobolds that have been giving locals trouble."
To the rest of the group "they ask us If We are in league with the derro and why we are below ground "
Ivo speaks up quickly, gesticulating with his hands as he does so.
The white bearded deep gnome's attention flits back and forth between Razarak and Ivo, as the pair seem to understand him.
To Razarak, he says "Claidheamh triath? Restov? Dè tha ann an claidheamh thighearn? Cho fad 'sa eil thu leis an Derro, bhiodh e coltach nach' eil againn còmhstri. Sin a ràdh, bu chòir dhuibh ur tilleadh gu uachdar an t-saoghail agus a 'fàgail an doimhneachd gu Svirfneblin."
Turning his attention to his rather animated, very distant cousin, he says, "Buidhnean thu ag ràdh? Far a bheil? Cia mheud de mo seòrsa? Bha mallaichte Derro sin? Cia mheud a rinn mo mharbhadh càirdean? Gu cinnteach nach robh uidhir a bhiodh airidh. Bidh thu a 'gabhail rium agus mo cho-ogha do na buidhnean de ar càirdean' s mar sin faodaidh sinn a bhuileachadh orra ceart cuir dheth gu Nivi."
Ivo turns to the group and says, "The bodies are news to them. They would like for us to show them to the bodies so they can bring back the fallen - bring him home."
Torsten answers Ivo, "Then we should do so. Keep an eye out for these derro though, in company with those they have been fighting they will surely think us enemies too." After a moment's consideration he adds, "Could you ask them how derro like to fight?"
Jacobus stands passively aside as his companions continue to talk, Smart bunch of people. The Swordlords chose well.
Once they turn back to Common, he adds, "Derro? Is that the bad guys here? Do they venture to the surface much? Perhaps we shouldn't get involved in deep explorations before we mapped out the area?"