The Descent

JP with Voah, Alexis, Tarmen, Winteroak and Gonyaul:

With Tarmen in the lead you make good time across the void that connects to the mine. The jungle native and ruin diver takes you all on a brisk pace through the massive dark cavern, as the rushing sound of water can be heard nearby. He than leads you to the spot where he found the caver gives way to a clear man made construct. By the light of the torch you see cobblestones leading to a tunnel. A few metres in the tunnel forks into direction -left and right - and you decide here is a good place to take stock.

He was surprised at how close he had actually been to the main tunnel, much closer than he had believed. Once they had found the building he had touched and its hidden corridor, he looked to the others.

“I vote left. Sound good?”

Alexis gave a nod, holding out her torch so they could see a bit more into the intended direction.

It was pointedly colder in the mines and it smelled dank of wet earth. The stygian darkness of the cavern’s maw was awesome and terrifying. One could easily lose their bearings down here.

Gonyaul was enjoying this. He had never been in a mine before. It was a splendiferous experience to be here with friends. And the deeper they traveled the more his imagination played out fantastical stories and events in the back of his mind. And then there was the thrill of the unexpected.

It was very dark. A thick dark. Would they eventually run into stars. Was going into the belly of the earth the bridge to the night sky?

When they stopped, he took a few steps ahead of the torch and took a deep breath at all three corridors. Nothing alarming came to his sense of smells. He did not feel any discernible difference in air flow. He felt the surrounding environment with his hands.

Growing up they had a special night training while meditating. When meditating they covered their eyes and they were taught to use their other senses and learn not to depend on the eyes at all.

He agreed with their decision based on the data.

You take the corridor left for around 15 metres and take a right turn. A few minutes walking into the its damp cobblestones and you reach a dead end. A cave in. No point in losing too much time with this you all feel. Tarmen curses like a sailor on shore leave. You retreat your steps and follow the corridors the opposite direction. Fifteen metres from past where you started, you take a left turn and come upon an archway.

Up ahead is what it appears to be a room. You notice the temperature is increasing as you are so many metres below ground.

Alexis took the time to leave marks with the chalk, so they could keep track of where they had been and would have an easier time to find back in a hurry. Just in case.

Voah kept alert of any sounds as she moved, quiet behind the experienced delver.

The mercenary stepped closer to the archway, illuminating it with her torch, and checking wether it bore any markings.

You can see what it looks like a square room. Your torches illuminate an area of around 7 or 8 metres in front of you. metres ahead of you. The crumbling masonry on the archway and the cracked cobblestones a sure sign that the underground area has fallen to ruin. A tapping sound fills the room.

Gonyaul was working out the reasoning for why the temperature was increasing. At night things typically cooled off, but not here. Was there a large fire down here? Did it keep the ground warm? He was getting a little distracted by all the novelty. The tapping sound wakes him back up to their surroundings. Interesting.

He was in the back of the group, his hands tracing over the ruined archway’s markings.