Taking Sapphira's hand in one of her own and Basil's in the other, the huntress takes a deep breath, taking solace in her sister's gentle squeeze of her hand.
Once they've all joined hands, Kelda looks back at Master Ardin, "Okay, we're ready as soon as you are. Thank you so much, for just everything. We really appreciate it." She says, while trying to mentally prepare herself for magical travel.
You feel your stomach drop as the room fades into nothingness. A moment later, you find yourselves in a barren building. Empty bookshelves and crates line the walls and a thick layer of dust kicks up as you materialize.
Sapphira scrunches up her nose at the musty smell in the room, "Eewwee...gross, where are we?"
Kelda shrugs while looking around for anything to help them find their way out of the abandoned mines, "I'm not sure exactly. I was pretty young when the mine was shut down, so I've never actually been in it. I've only heard stories of what it used to be. It looks like this might have been some kind of storage room or office? Let's just look around and see if we find anything to help us get out of here."
Kelda explains while searching the room for any clues on how to get out of the mines.
"Ardin said we'd be at the quarry, so probably one of the outbuildings." Lysitia replies, taking in the condition of the abandoned building. "I guess once we're outside, we'll have a better idea of how far we are from Varota."
Nodding, Jade moves around the fringes of the room looking for anything notable.
Jade determines that this building has been thoroughly and methodically cleaned. The bookshelves and crates are crude objects and not worth salvaging.
A solitary door provides the only exit from this room, but Kelda's eyes are drawn to the wall opposite of the door. Something seems off to the dwarf.
Kelda goes to the wall that doesn't seem quite right, and inspects it more closely.
Kelda sees that the wall was definitely crafted by dwarves, but notices a part that doesn't look like the rest. A solid whack could probably break it apart.
Kelda runs her hand over the wall for a moment, "Hmmmm....interesting."
Taking out her hammer, Kelda swings at the odd bit of wall.
Kelda manages to put a crack in the false bit of wall, but not enough to break through.
Kelda takes another couple whacks at the wall.
Kelda grunts in frustration before taking another swing at the wall
Kelda makes no progress on the wall, only wearing herself out.
"Let me try love!" Lysithia says casting a spell to empower her staff.
Taking a deep breath, she embraces her natural growth, increasing in size as she drives the butt of her staff into the wall with as much force as she can muster.
Breathing heavily, Kelda nods and steps away from the wall to give her love room.
Lysithia breaks apart the weak part of the wall and uncovers a small iron coffer.
Returninging to her normal size, Lysithia uses the butt of her staff to push away the debris, taking a moment to study the iron coffer.
Kelda sighs as her love comes up with the most obvious solution to the stubborn wall, "Why didn't I think of that? Good job love, I wonder what it is?"
Lysithia finds the coffer has a simple clasp with no lock. It is plain without any engraving or ornamentation.
"Maybe something that the miners here wanted to stash for a rainy day?"
Moving over to crouch down beside the coffer, Jade shrugs before undoing the clasp and opening the iron coffer.
The only thing Lysithia sees in the coffer is a large aquamarine gem sitting on some old burlap sacks.
Kelda takes a quick look at the stone, "I'm not sure, but they must have had their reasons for hiding it."
Sapphira's eyes glow a brilliant blue as she looks into the magical spectrum, for anything that might make this gem special to the Dwarves.
To Kelda's trained eye, this piece of aquamarine is worth 700 gold pieces, nearly 2 years worth of pay for a commoner. It is not magical.
Sapphira shrugs her shoulders, "There's nothing super special about it as far as I can tell."
Kelda whistles softly, "Other than being an exquisite cut, and worth 700 gold, I guess not. I think we should take it back to the city with us, and turn it over to them. This stone is like two years of pay to them, and even if I can't give them back their mine....I can give them this." Closing the coffer back up, Kelda places it in her bag.
"Okay, we need to get back to Varota proper from here, but I've never been in these mines before, and I'm not sure where we are in them....but we need to get out of here. I can try to help discern direction, but do you think you can get us out of here Jade?" Kelda asks, while trying to figure out which way to go, while not getting them lost in the mines.
Sapphira let's out a snort of laughter, "Ms. Kelda, you worry far too much for someone so young. Don't worry so much, you'll get wrinkles." She says, trying to lighten the heavy mood in the air.
Jade arches an eyebrow, but remains quiet. Depending on how long this mine had been abandoned (and how things went for those who fled), whoever stashed the gem here might not be around to return it to.
Kelda goes to the door to leave the room, and figure out which way to go.
You walk out into a large, mined out cavern. Kelda intuits a way back to Vorota using the cavern ceiling as a guide. After about ten minutes of walking, you hear the sound of rushing water nearby. You come to an underground river that tears across your path. A bridge across, long neglected, barely spans the torrent of water. A quick appraisal of the bridge tells you that the supports have been washed away some time ago.
Seeing the main supports of the bridge gone, gives Kelda a bad feeling, but she's unsure of what to do.
Looking around at her beloved as well as the others, "It isn't safe to cross here, we'll have to find another way across. Does anyone have any ideas as to what our best course of action is? Should we walk upstream, ir downstream to look for another place to cross?" She asks of her companions.
"We'd either have to find another crossing point, or swim across." Lysithia says, looking at the river and bridge.
Kelda looks from the rushing water of the river to Lysithia and the others, "I don't think trying to swim across would be a good idea with the water moving that quickly. Besides, in this armor I'd probably sink like a stone." She says, gesturing to her full plate.
Thinking for a moment she kind of shrugs and sighs, "It's too bad we're underground. If there was any wildlife around here love, you could probably enhance it and make it grow around the bridge to make it more sturdy. I guess we'll just have to find another way across. The only question is should we try further upstream, or go downstream from here?" She says, trying to recall everything she had heard about the mines, and everything she learned in survival training to try and deduce the way they should go.
There was nothing she could do to help with the bridge situation, so she looks around to see if she could figure out which way to go from here.
Kelda and Sapphira's survival instincts merely reiterate that you were headed in the right direction. You would need to rely on a different sense to find a way across.
Jade studies the area in silence, trying to come up with the best possible approach to navigating the underground river.
Basil silently observes the area.
Nobody sees much of way across, but Jade believes if they move down river the group might be able to find a calmer spot to cross.
"Best bet is to move downriver a bit. We might find a calmer spot to cross." Jade suggests.
Kelda nods, "That sounds like a good idea, and prlobably safer as well. Let's head downstream then and see how things look. I just hope it isn't too deep." Never having been the most agile person, the thought of crossing a river made her slightly nervous.
Taking Lysithia's hand, Kelda then starts following the river downstream with the others right behind them.
Jade takes point, heading downriver in search of an easier crossing, alert for signs of danger.