"...Huh." Saeri said as she drew The Beating from her deck. "I dare say we should be on the lookout for creatures that may have made this place their home." Sliding the card back into its case, she swapped it for a deck of lesser cards - not Harrows cards, but simply playing cards that she'd learned a few tricks for.
...In fairness, being on the lookout was a good idea to begin with, but a draw like that suggested a certain degree of added urgency, even if the warnings could be frustratingly difficult to interpret. Still, best to be safe.
"Tch. Yeah, better be careful lest we'll catch lockjaw too." Lu grunts as the, nicely put, run down mining complex lays before them. It didn't look inhabited or infested which was nice. Then again, the standards for inhabitation can be quite low ... Placing one hand on the hilt of her blade she slowly moved forward to get a better look. "Zis place looks deserted. Though you never know... And no waterdeepian knobs either, which is a shame. If we want ze mine proper ze 'champion' would probably be good for digging at least! Hmph. Anyone remembers why zey shut zis place down?"
Chaïa shook her head as, hearing Saeri’s warning, she drew and strung her bow in case something tried to creep up on the group. “I’m afraid not – I only heard about the place on my way into town, when another traveller pointed out some landmarks to help me get my bearings. Then again, since the tomb hasn’t been … catalogued yet, I suppose maybe the miners just found something that looked promising nearby, rather than digging right into it?”
She shaded her eyes against the sun as she examined the abandoned outbuilding from a distance. Shrugging, and – to be quite honest – not being eager to suggest plunging into the mine immediately, Chaïa wandered over to examine the building more closely. How long ago was the mine abandoned, again?
"Well, we made it to the mine, which probably is good.", Janus looks around, carefully moving near the former well, looking down into the hole. "But where to, next. Do we have any idea about the exact location of this lost tomb? We can search the nearby area, but we lack the time for a wider sweep if we mean to be there first."
Janus picks up a small rock and throws it down into the darkness, testing how deep the hole still is:"Assuming Tirra and Khellek know where they are heading, that is."
Chaïa shook her head as, hearing Saeri’s warning, she drew and strung her bow in case something tried to creep up on the group. “I’m afraid not – I only heard about the place on my way into town, when another traveller pointed out some landmarks to help me get my bearings. Then again, since the tomb hasn’t been … catalogued yet, I suppose maybe the miners just found something that looked promising nearby, rather than digging right into it?”
She shaded her eyes against the sun as she examined the abandoned outbuilding from a distance. Shrugging, and – to be quite honest – not being eager to suggest plunging into the mine immediately, Chaïa wandered over to examine the building more closely. How long ago was the mine abandoned, again?
Chaïa guessed that the building had stood empty for decades, though probably not a century. She could see bird's nests and other debris through the gaping windows, along with some rotted and broken down furniture.
She joined Janus at the well, where both found the shaft in poor repair. Numerous stones had gone missing from its sides, letting dirt spill in. A large crack ran down one side, starting just a few feet below the surface. The stone Janus threw fell for two breaths before splashing into water somewhere in the darkness.
"Hm. Not too deep, then." Saeri said, peering over at the well. "Haytham, would you mind seeing if there are any trapdoors hidden under all this rubble? If there's a basement here, it might be in better repair than the rest of the place."
Haytham nodded and removed a gauntlet, searching the area around the outbuilding and worked in an ever widening circle.
Janus looked at Saeri amused:"Two breaths is plenty deep enough, for my taste. I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed, though.", then joined Haytham in his search.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any rope with me, in case we get desperately curious,” Chaïa pronounced, after hearing the rock’s splash deep below. She shrugged, and joined the others in their search, after scanning the landscape once more for signs of anything out of the ordinary.
Haytham, Janus, and Chaïa's search of the grounds turned up a bird's nest in the building which looked rather too symmetrical and neatly made to be natural. It sat just a bit too perfectly within the gap between two stones. Moving it, they found a small cache of vials with pasted-on labels. All labels bore the sign of an eight-pointed star. Three appeared to be lamp oil. The fourth held a murky green liquid. With them rested a leather parcel wrapped tight with string.
Saeri glanced thoughtfully at the labels, trying to recall if the symbol was associated with any concept or group she was familiar with. It was often hard to say for sure, given the sheer number of groups and the limited number of symbols they tended to use, but it was always worth a search of her memories to double-check.
"Rope? I got zat!" Lu exclaims and heads over to the well investigators with an doubtful expression. "Though I'm not sure zat would be an good idea..."
"Sooooo, if we are going to spend some time poking around here ..." Lu mumbles mostly to herself. While the others focus on clues as such, she tries to find a good spot that looks at least somewhat sheltered without an too high risk of being crushed under falling rocks. No if we could avoid that, all would be good! Then she opens her backpack and wakes up Arun. "Hey - see if you can't find any structures or suspicious spots around here. Or any signs of ze pesky waterdeepians!"
"Rope? I got zat!" Lu exclaims and heads over to the well investigators with an doubtful expression. "Though I'm not sure zat would be an good idea..."
"Sooooo, if we are going to spend some time poking around here ..." Lu mumbles mostly to herself. While the others focus on clues as such, she tries to find a good spot that looks at least somewhat sheltered without an too high risk of being crushed under falling rocks. No if we could avoid that, all would be good! Then she opens her backpack and wakes up Arun. "Hey - see if you can't find any structures or suspicious spots around here. Or any signs of ze pesky waterdeepians!"
Lucrecia found no signs that anyone had been to the mine in some time.
Saeri glanced thoughtfully at the labels, trying to recall if the symbol was associated with any concept or group she was familiar with. It was often hard to say for sure, given the sheer number of groups and the limited number of symbols they tended to use, but it was always worth a search of her memories to double-check.
[dice=Know (Arcane?) - Identify Symbol]1d20 + 8
Saeri recalled the eight-pointed star as the sign of a group called the Seekers, a scholarly cabal active in the North and Western Heartlands some years ago. They were infamous for theft from other scholars. When it came out that some members of the churches of Oghma, Deneir, and Mystra had connections with the group it caused a major scandal in Waterdeep.
Huh. Saeri shrugged slightly reporting her deciphering of the symbol. She didn't take the vials herself, but had no objections if anyone wanted to do so - if you stole from others, you couldn't rightly complain if others stole from you, especially if you just left things out in public places.
Wandering over to the others’ discoveries, Chaïa picked up the parcel, trying to guess what it might be by the weight in her hand and the way that the contents shifted. Her curiosity piqued, she untied the string and unfolded the leather to see what the package contained.
“Well, that’s just lovely,” she murmured at Saeri’s report of who had left the cache there. “More scoundrels to worry about.”
Eyeing the stuff in her own hands and the curious green fluid in the one vial, after a moment’s hesitation Chaïa called up a cantrip to test the air for magic.
"Seekers, hu? They steal from other scholars, don't they? Wouldn't want them well equipped if they mean to steal from us after we emerge from the place we're heading towards, now do we?", Janus picks up the vials Saeri uncovered, then watches as Chaia unties the bundle.
"Well, it might be an old stash." Lu theorises. "But Seekers could explain why ze last expedition went so pear-shaped noh?"
Chaïa’s spell reveals conjuration about the green vial and abjuration on the parcel. Opening the latter, she found what looked to be the first draft of a letter. It had clearly been written in some haste and bore numerous scratchings out and corrections:
My Master,
The surveys have progressed well. The tools complain, but the promise of coin has kept them at work. As you know, the records are fragmentary. We have found a promising site that matches none of the known ruins. If we are lost, I commend it to you for the good of our order:
From the Trevgill mine, you must set your face to the rising sun and walk about ten minutes. The entrance is overgrown and wedged between two boulders. We would not have found it at all, but my Wyrd claimed to hear whispers as we passed and I had the tools set to work. They found a gap large enough for a wolf to slip through. Sent the halfling in and she came out saying the gap led to worked stone and that the place whispered to her. The tools now work clearing the passage.
May the Binder Keep you.
-Ulavant
"Jackpot.", Janus smiles, "This could be exactly what we're looking for. At least, the best lead we've got, since they obviously didn't come back to pick up their stuff...shall we check the place out while we're in the lead?"
After reading the letter aloud for the benefit of the group, Chaïa replied, “Do let’s. We’ve got a claim to stake. But first, whatever that green stuff is, it’s infused with conjuration magic, and this letter had a trace of some abjuration on it – to keep it safe, I suppose. Give me a moment and I’ll see if I can determine anything more.”
Drawing on her spell again, she fell silent for a few more heartbeats as she seemingly stared into space, using her magically-enhanced vision to trace the weight of the objects before her on the Weave, the threads running through them…
Shaking her head as if to shake off cobwebs as she returned to everyday sight, Chaïa carefully folded the letter back up and added it to her pack. “Fortunately,” she said quietly, “This isn’t the Cairn itself, so I think we can keep this letter to ourselves. No sense in revealing all our secrets as superlative archaeologists.”
"It's always good for a lady to have a little mystery to her." Saeri noted with a smile. She glanced around the place one more time, then nodded slightly. "I think we're done here, so let's not tarry overlong. We've still got some ways to go, after all."
[dice=Spellcraft (to identify potion)]1d20+7+2
[dice=Spellcraft (to check what's going on with the letter)] 1d20+7+2
"Well zen! Let's be off and keep our eyes open for paired boulders." Lu turns vaguely eastward and calls back Arun. "Anyone got a compass just to be sure?"
"No need for a compass, my sister once explained this to me. We can simply use the sun and the trees...Moss will grow on the north side of their bark, where...hu? This one's mossy all over? Why?..." Janus swallows, then looks at Lu, who smiles amused, before reluctantly repeating her question, admitting defeat:"Anybody got a compass?"
Haytham watched as Janus tried his trick with the moss. With a wan smile he nodded and pointed, "North is that way." With that he resettled his gear and took the lead toward the ruins indicated in the letter.
Saeri chuckled slightly, then tilted her head in Haytham's direction. "Looks like we're following him." she said, moving out behind Haytham and keeping an eye on the surroundings as she went.
...Not that she was particularly good at doing so or anything.
Paired boulders proved more common than Yellowknife's Company would have liked, but it took them only a quarter hour to find the proper set. Between them ran a narrow crevasse choked with brush, save for a low tunnel that one could crawl through. A few bones lay nearby.
"Hmph. Finally! Zere was way too many rocks out zere, almost is if someone wanted to annoy us..." Lu exclaims as they spot the suspicious spot. And the bones. Well that is certainly a good sign! She carefully makes her way towards the remains and pokes them with her blade, just to get a good look at them. It *could* just be some random animal remains but - what were the odds? "Anyone can tell anyzing about zese?"
Haytham eyed the tunnel, "That's going to be a bit tight, anyone good at wriggling?"
"Yeh - were is zat gnome when you need him?" Lu muttered.
"Not one of my talents, I'm afraid." Saeri noted. "Although I might be able to smooth things out at least a little..." Prestidigitation was a wonderful little tool. It wasn't the same as casting grease all over everything, but hey. A little help was better than no help at all, right?
After vague mutterings most of the way over from the mine site to the cairn, weighing various possibilities for what a “wyrd” might before being discarded helplessly, a distinctly elf-shaped silence fell as the group began poking around the boulders.
Finally, seeing there was nothing else for it, Chaïa reluctantly stepped forward, shrugging her heavy pack from her lithe frame. “I’m not particularly wrigglish, but I can give it a try,” she offered. “I’ll see how far I can get, and if it looks like there’s enough room, you can pass me the rest of my things before following.”
She raised an eyebrow at the way Saeri’s suggestion trailed off. Do I want to know? Before Chaïa could change her mind, she nodded, “Wonderful - please do. I have a trick up my sleeve if it really gets tight, but hopefully it won’t come to that.”
Drawing her dagger and checking her spell component pouch was secure, she cast a light cantrip on it so she would be able to see some way ahead as she tried to navigate the crevasse (and just in case something turned up that needed rather sharp prodding!), before crouching down to make the attempt.
"Hmph. Finally! Zere was way too many rocks out zere, almost is if someone wanted to annoy us..." Lu exclaims as they spot the suspicious spot. And the bones. Well that is certainly a good sign! She carefully makes her way towards the remains and pokes them with her blade, just to get a good look at them. It *could* just be some random animal remains but - what were the odds? "Anyone can tell anyzing about zese?"
[dice=Perception: Examine bones]1d20+6
The bones look relatively fresh to Lucrecia, and clearly gnawed upon.
Her spell-lit blade ahead of her, Chaïa got down and slipped beneath the brush. Going in at a crouch instead of a crawl was unkind to her back. Branches and rough stone rasped against her as she went. Behind the boulders, she found two plain monoliths pressed between boulder and hillside, framing a tunnel of fitted stone. A faint breeze, which ought to be impossible so far in, made constant sounds like a sighing breath or whispered words.
Past the squeeze, Chaïa found herself standing in a corridor twenty feet wide and high. The ceiling arched smooth above. The walls, the stones so precisely fit that she had to strain to see the seams, bore intricate, low geometric reliefs. In places, they bore flecks of ancient paint, brilliant purples and dull mustard. In other places, the walls bore the signs of plunder: carvings broken away, stretches of paint ending sharply as if scraped. A thin coat of dust covered the floor.
Down the way, Chaïa's light showed her shallow alcoves to east and west. There the walls bore still more damage, with clumsy scrawl defacing the ancient masonry. Beyond that, the tunnel faded into the dark. Somewhere in that silent dark, a faint green light flickered.
"Tch. These look fresh. Zat is not a good sign ..." Lu comments as she examines/pokes the bones. With a thin smile she watches the wizard go down the hole. "Good luck!"
Saeri bent down slightly to study the wreckage. "Be on the lookout for when this stops." she said, fingering them. "That's usually where the interesting and dangerous stuff is." Particularly if the end was sudden. Of course, sometimes that was just people finishing up and going home, but still - it was a pretty good measure as such things went.
Once she was able to straighten up again and work the strain out of her back, Chaïa took a moment to get her bearings. “Fascinating!” she breathed, mind already whirling with what might still be waiting to be discovered.
Reminding herself not to get carried away, she bent back down to the tunnel she’d just come through and called to the others, “Don’t worry, it opens up in a bit! It might be a bit easier at a crawl, but everyone should be fine. And someone grab my pack, please – there’s things in there that might prove useful. You wouldn’t believe this place!”
Turning again toward the inner reaches of the cairn, Chaïa felt her skin begin to crawl at the touch of the unlikely breeze. It does whisper, I’ll give it that much, she thought, trying to keep her spirits up. Noting the signs of someone’s earlier visit, she frowned at the damage, and, holding her dagger higher to better direct its golden light, moved closer to the western alcove to get a better look at both the ancient carvings and the graffiti over them.
"Well, no good will come from waiting around out here. No harm, either, but we hardly came here to enjoy the scenery...", Janus states, more to convince himself to enter the place. Dropping down, he crawled in, took a look at the area and waited for the others:"So, regarding the others...should we leave them a note or something? If they track us here, how to we proof we've been in here first? Did you arrange for something during that meeting?"
Janus seemed to talk to take his mind off his surroundings. The walls seemed a bit too familiar, and he had no good memories of a similar place. At the same time, he was excited about the possibilities, about what they COULD find further in. He seemingly had a hard time focusing, and tried to pull himself together by chatting with his companions.
"On it!" Lu called down the hole as Janus disappeared. Drawing her buckler she jammed the central spike into one of the boulders and started to make an *very* shallow engraving. Well scraping off a bit of dirt at least! Hmm. What to write? Her mind circled trough elaborate insults and glorious proclamations, but her patience - and buckler - vetoed those. Something simple ...
1! <3 Lu
"Zere! Something at least." Lu declared as she finished the crude pictogram and reattached the buckler to her belt. Hmph. Not much though. For additional safeguarding she once again reached into her bag and pulled out the plump black bird. "Arun. Keep an eye on ze entrance while we are in. If zose pesky waterhavians shows up keep an eye on zem too. And if zey tries to screw us over - or we don't come back for half a day - fly and tell zat wizard."
Satisfied with that Lu dropped down to wiggle her way into the tomb.
The company made their way through the tunnel and into the corridor, all hearing the same whispering noise that Chaïa had. The elf made her way forward, examining the patterned bands running along the walls. They were made painstaking attention, interwoven precisely at careful angles and repeated just so, marking out a steady pace where they stood intact.
The graffiti had no such order. Most of it was simple scrawling, lines gouged or scratched about with no real pattern or crude shapes of animals and people. Beneath one of those, she found a brittle bundle that looked to have been a bedroll once.
Saeri kept a couple of cards between her fingers - they didn't look like much, but they were her idea of weapons... and the subtle nature made her less of an obvious threat, which tended to work out in her favor. Other than that, there didn't seem to be much to do except follow the tracks they'd found.
Settling her pack on her shoulders again, Chaïa reassured Janus, “We’ve got a tenday from now – since we’ve found the place – with the place to ourselves. Once that’s up, we’ve agreed to report our find and a reasonable amount of the details about what the site was like when we found it. In the meantime, if they blunder in after us, well, there won’t be any question of who was first. So long as we don’t leave the place entirely unattended until our time is up, we’ll be alright.”
“Shall we?” Even as she asked, her fingers curled tighter around the dagger that was serving as her light source, her eyes peering down the passage to the faint glow beyond. She continued her slow progress, adding with a casual gesture to the graffiti and tattered remains of the bedroll that did nothing to conceal her trepidation, “Keep your eyes open. We’ve obviously not been the only visitors in all that long a while, in the grand scheme of things.”
Janus picks up a stone, casts light on it, then throws it forward in a flat arc. "I was more expecting them to track us, then stumble in if there's no sign of us. If this place had branching paths, it may not be so elegantly clear who came first, if we return to the surface at night and they lay in wait inside. But you are right, I'm probably overthinking this."
Studying the patterns on the walls, Janus moves forward in the passage, giving the light rock a casual kick to move it further ahead each time he reaches it. Chaia's warning convinces him to draw his sword, advancing in a stance ready to strike if something approaches from further inside:"Aye, not the first visitors, but none of the previous ones returned, it would seem. This place may hold dangers of various sorts."