Jeannine Rentour's page

The woman gently lays the dwarven woman back on the ground and then carefully places her fingers along the side of her head as if she were working a device.

She looks up at Bud, then at the others, then back to Bud and says directly to him

Removing the mask from the dwarven woman’s face, the elven woman holds it delicately, and then heads for the stairs, in a hurry to be done with this place

And then when it dawns on her that maybe Bud understands her, she goes on

Yathi, ai mono mu numu kinil ak ruthind ostrabat. Ostrabat him ackla nogram igat, igat, igat.

Portia! It's me Jeannine, from Fort Horizon. Thank the fates you're still alive. Drespor swore he would kill all of you.

Alright then, let's gather everyone together and get back to the top.

Look, I think there is a door there,” she points to the north west “and behind it there should be another shaft. Should we check it out or leave?”

”I had no idea, what, what am I doing? I’m going to get us all killed. We need a better plan. Karl, we’re going back, and we are going to rethink this before we go any further.”

”Well,” Jeannine says to the group, “We found another cave in to the north, and a passageway that goes to the east. That passageway ends in a large chamber, with almost no dirt on the floor, and unfortunately, the remains of what appears to be one of the explorers we are looking for. There are some shafts, that descend into the darkness and it seems that someone tried to explore that way.”

Lars

interrupts her and says, “We found ropes, and they aren’t more than a few months old, in this dry climate, they would have rotted away by now if they’d been there longer.”

Jeannine goes on, “We are going to have to follow these shafts down, and look for more clues. How does everyone feel about that?”

”What? Why didn’t somebody say something earlier, quickly take me to this thing I need to see it.”

“We should set a watch in pairs. I’ll take the first, with any volunteer. Because I need our climbers up early and a thorough inspection of the gear done, I’m asking that Lars and Bill sit out any watch during the night. Our plan is to drop three ropes over the edge. We’ll rig one over a fixed shiv and use it to move supplies. With the other two ropes we’ll descend in pairs, one experienced climber with one less experienced climber. We’re going to have to scout east and west until we find a ledge at fifty feet down, with a marker, it should be four blue painted rocks set in a circle, and when we do, that’s where we’ll be dropping. Are there any questions?”

”I’m not sure we should take the time to do that. What do you think, Portia?” she asks the guide. ”Are we going to miss making camp before nightfall if we tarry any longer here?”

“You see, friends, the issue of what we might find, and what we might keep, is complicated, not that I, or anyone associated with the university is looking to cheat anyone out of a fortune, but, well, it’s like this. Our letter from Derwinter seemed confusing at times. She indicated that what she found was a combination of what to her appeared to be the ruin of an ancient civilization, and dare I say this, and please don’t expect me to explain it any better, but she also suggested that there was something else, something not of this world. Now, this is where mister Drespor comes in. He is an expert in the lore of alternative planes of existence, elemental planes are his speciality, and in this he is very reliable, but even he was unable to make heads or tails of some of the things Derwinter described. What we know, the only thing we know is this. Some items that have been recovered by the weac from the ruins in the north have proved to be extremely dangerous and unpredictable, but we don’t know the details, as the weac will not share their research with the university. Other stories described the finding of unusual coins, and items that are relatively common, but still valuable.”

The pretty Halfling girl pause at this point turns to the side and takes a step, while clasping her hands behind her back before she continues.

“I, for one, would be delighted to find any artifact that fits any of the descriptions we’ve read in Derwinter’s letters, but at the same time if what she describes is accurate, it could be dangerous to try and recover these artifacts. She describes very strange, animated objects of bizarre construction and unknown purpose. If we discover anything of value on this expedition we will try and take a reasonable approach to determine how the wealth of the discovery will be divided, and I do not expect anyone to feel that simply because we are paying for your assistance that this means you would not be entitled to a fair share of the profit of the expedition. At the same time, I hope that you understand that we are not prepared to supply anyone with loads of expensive gear. We, I, expect you to provide your own food, and whatever gear you feel is necessary for your comfort, while we will do our best to provide rope, and a limited amount of climbing gear. We are not as well funded as we would like to be. Our hope is that we find out what we want to know as quickly as possible. If Derwinter is still alive, and not lost somewhere in the depths of the world, we hope we find her soon.”

She stops her pacing and then turns and smiles at everyone.

“We would like to be ready to depart the Fort at first light. Our goal the first day is to establish a base camp in a location some seventeen miles to the north, at a location we only have a vague idea about that is identified in Derwinter’s letters as the “Black Gorge” so called because of a large deposit of black stone and a gap in the ground some twenty to thirty feet in width that runs for several miles from the southwest to the northeast. We understand that we are to follow a trail, called Womak’s Snake trail, and we have already asked about that and are certain we can find it quickly. Once we establish a base camp, we intend to rappel down into this gorge to a shelf below the ridge some ninety feet where we are hoping to find an entrance to these ruins described in Derwinter’s letters. We expect that finding the exact location could take a few days. But we are taking enough supplies to last three weeks, and our expedition will be controlled by this factor.”

“I hope that you will not be offended if we take down your names, and signatures, as evidence of your participation in this expedition, and as signatory to this expedition each of you will be given a policy of one thousand dollars to be paid to a person you specify should you be lost while in our service.”

Jeannine moves forward and says, “We are representatives of the University of Counbria and one of our associates, a Miss Pellido Derwinter last contacted us from this fort telling us she had found something remarkable in a cave a few miles north of here. We expected to hear from her again, but we have not, and that is why we are here. We would offer to pay twenty five dollars a day for your services, and this would be a private enterprise completely unconnected to the weac or its interests. Our mission is twofold, first, to collect information to corroborate the claims of Miss Derwinter, and second, to hopefully discover what may have happened to Derwinter and her associates. If you are interested, I would gladly join you for a drink and tell you everything we know.”

“Guards, actually,” Rentour interrupts the dwarf