A Luminous Invitation
The Season of Still Stone
In spite of Cob's bruises and your own inability to see them right now, for the moment you decide to press on into the mine that is not the treacherous way up to the ruins which, if the wisdom of the People's elders is to be believed, may lead to worse treachery within.
A cave might harbor beast or shambler, might crack at quake and offer passages to foes if you are not careful, but a ruin holds all the malice of a folk not dead and if you are unlucky whatever killed them as well.
When you share that tidbit of lore Gorok only answers. "A mine left abandoned is a ruin to the delvers."
"But we know what killed them," Cob points out, kicking a headless moldfolk. "Greenies."
And I hope that's all it is, you say only to yourself least you leech the others' courage. There is need of no small measure of it to crawl on your hands and knees through the narrow tunne, and you and Mina must do so. Gorok, the lucky tongue-biter, has more give to his spine than either of you able to. Cob, of course, is wholly untroubled by the either the low ceiling or his bruises.
About halfway through you pass by a
broken snare not knotted or woven, but grown, spines like dark green daggers promising agony to any unfortunates tangled in it. Past the trap the ceiling starts to rise, though much too slowly for your liking, such that you imagine the latterhalf of the tunnel to be something like an elongated tunnel pointing upwards.
Suddenly the ceiling ends entirely, the sharp lip of stone catching the cold downdrafts in a wail that sets your teeth on edge... though not as much as the lack of any foes. There isn't anything really besides Cob's bucket, one of those 'lifts' you had heard about from Dancers who have traveled as far as the duergar capital of Hagegraf. Although this one had obviously not been made with exacting dwarf craft. The chain for it goes up about thirty five feet, thankfully without any misshapen green heads peering over the edge. In fact, you think someone may be able to climb the shaft barehanded with a bit of luck... but you would not want to try it with armed foes above able to roll rocks and worse onto you.
"Come on!" Cob stomps his feet on the carpet of loose stone, waste-rock from the mine thrown down here by the miners who had not bothered to check where their pit was leading.
A reminder, if any was needed, to be careful where you can as well as bold where you must. Two of you against however many foes are up there does not sound like good odds and you say so.
It is Mina who comes up with a solution of sorts. She conjures a quartet of azure lights, each the size of her fist, painfully bright up close. As thumps and claps echo down the shaft she frowns. "They are asking what's going on but I can't answer, my hands wouldn't make that sound."
"We should have cut off the hand of one of the corpses," you muse as the lift jerks upwards, earning an approving nod and, one assumes, an equally approving snap from Gorok. Or maybe he is just limbering up his jaw?
What do you do when the bucket comes down?
[] Throw the tumor bulb among them, maybe the others will think light monsters are to blame
[] Shoot them as they come down, you should get plenty of free shots
[] Lead them away with the lights then fight them head on, you cannot afford any of their friends seeing this wave all die, else they would just pull the lift up and you will not be able to use it
[] Write in
Definitions:
Tongue-biter - Literally someone who takes advantage of romantic relationships to 'bite the other person's tongue', that is to get ahead in some way reputational or material. Though the Calgni do not follow bloodlines, raising all the children of the tribe collectively, this quality is thought to be hereditary. Though it can and is used as an insult it can also have playful connotations of 'cunning bastard'.
OOC: I decided to put the dictionary additions in the update. They are used as well as the front page so you guys can see it clearly.