[X] Get back to plant-collecting.
- [X] North
--[X] Take some of the gold metal stuff along if you can. Might be valuable to someone if it's gold.
You shake your head and turn to the mess. It's probably not worth it to go up the pipe, and if it
is, it'll be worse, because you'll probably lose track of time and have to rush back down to the cavern to look for the Crimson Nirnroots. Since you're here, though, you might as well pick up some more souvenirs - not for yourself, but as more trade goods, especially if you have to go to
another place. The gold-metal isn't gold - you know that metal well enough! - but it has a similar look, and even if no one here is interested in it, you might be able to pass it off as something
as valuable as gold. Particularly since rarity plays such a huge part in how humans measure worth! You pick up a small, bent piece of the material, the intricate design slightly crooked, and add it to your collection - slightly serviceable as a small shield, perhaps? You also take a pair of elaborately-carved bowls and one of the face-masks. You sigh as you look at the debris scattered about; you don't really want to take
everything, but you're hardly in the position to determine what you
should take. Hoping that you haven't just wasted your time, you turn back to the door and reenter Blackreach. Taking flight, you head north at a leisurely pace, unwilling to return to the water just yet.
You drop to just above the ground as you cross the incidental river across the road … an odd choice, yellow bricks. You tap the paving stones, and they
aren't the gold-metal, despite their similar appearance; perhaps the builders were simply enamored of the color? You stay near the cave wall, listening and looking for the telltale thrum and glow of the plant, but you don't find any until, much later, the road branches and you swing to your left, into the forest of glowing mushrooms. Many are small, the size of ordinary mushrooms, but some are large, and a handful are truly massive, taller than a lot of buildings, and
those have mushrooms sprouting off their stalks like branches off a tree. More to the point, you can
hear, faintly, the sound of the Crimson Nirnroot. You find some evidence on the ground - a few withered and faded plants, a scrap of a leaf here and there, further evidence that the goblins are cultivating the plants - but it's not until you realize that the plants are growing
on the mushroom stalks that you look up and grin. In the sheltered recesses of the underside of the larger mushrooms' caps, you see the telltale glow of the Nirnroots. You float up and study them; ground-walkers probably would never find these, as the glow is somewhat masked by the mushrooms' own light, and they'd never think to look up anyway, especially since you only barely heard the sound. That won't be a problem for the magicians, though, since they can fly and you'll be able to tell them where to look. Even with the untapped source, however, you don't find many of them, only a dozen healthy, mature plants throughout the whole grove. That's far more than you need, however, and you add five to your pack, bringing your total count to eight - more because you have the room in your pack than because you expect them to appreciate a couple extra plants.
And while you're now all but finished with your chore, you still have a huge area to explore! You've been down here more than half a day already, and you've only done a barely-cursory exploration of things. You've ignored the ruined buildings almost completely, and if the cavern is even mostly squarish,
you could spend days just wandering around, looking at things! A thought strikes you, and you mentally sort through your belongings, then snarl and kick the nearest mushroom. You don't have any blank paper, or anything to draw with! You make a note to get a supply and keep it with you - lots of material, lots of different colors to draw with. Black-and-white is nice, but it so rarely does things justice. Sighing, you drop back down to the ground and float back toward the road. It loops around, heading south, probably back to the elevator, and you follow it back. It strikes you as a bit odd that you haven't seen any goblins about. They could have taken to living in the ruins, you suppose, but …. You pause for a moment as you leave the mushroom grove, then float up so you approach the odd bridge from its own height. When you get closer you see the ramp to your right, and your frown twists in confusion - did they build such a large structure just because they didn't want to walk up a natural incline? It connects to the higher level of cavern's supporting column, but you can see a natural path leading up to it just a bit farther ….
Shaking your head, you descend back to the road to study the object half-blocking the road. It's a humanoid construct, though lacking a left arm at the moment, and its right hand had been replaced with a giant hammer. Apart from its amputation, it's badly damaged, scorched and chipped and dented all about its legs and lower torso, and its head's connection to its torso is badly compromised. There's probably a fair amount of internal damage as well, but you're not about to do machine surgery - leave that to the kappa. This is probably what Mirabelle was referring to when she said that nonsense about living machines. You shrug and move on - no ambush, no goblins, no sign of whoever fought this. Boring. The road branches to the right but for now you work on completing your loop, following the road back in the general direction of the elevator.
You're perhaps halfway back to your starting point when you find a major discovery, and an answer to the question that had been bothering you. A ruined structure, crumbling with damage, is to your left, and stacked against the wall - piled, really - are goblin corpses. On the right side of the road
was a small cairn with a pair of bodies in it, but the trio giant black insect-things that are chewing on them appear to have dug them up. You kill the scavengers with a spray lethal bullets and study the pile of goblin corpses. Many have deep cuts, others have small, jagged puncture wounds or huge crushing injuries. A comparative handful seem to have been hit by something a lot more powerful than the rest - perhaps magic? You guess there to be at least sixty of the goblins in the pile, though you could be guessing low, especially if more of them have severe injuries. The other two corpses, though rather chewed, appear to have been human. Both are male, clad in similar equipment, a rugged brown set of brigandine and an open helmet. The helmets have some kind of sunburst symbol, as does a cloven shield nearby. You suppose they were part of the group that fought the goblins … their group must have won, then, but either were planning on returning or didn't have the ability to care for their dead in a more permanent fashion. You pull the less-chewed body toward you and study it, but it doesn't seem to have been dead long, probably less than a couple days. Hmm … the same group that defeated the machine at the bridge? Even if they aren't, they fought the goblins, so if you do meet them, you'll give them a benefit of the doubt. Of course, you
are done with your job, so you could just head back to the College and see Lutecia ….
What do you do?
[ ] Look for the survivors.
- [ ] North of the mushroom grove.
- [ ] West of the mushroom grove.
- [ ] Keep following the road south.
[ ] Explore the Cavern.
- [ ] North end.
- [ ] West side.
- [ ] South side.
[ ] Start going back to the College of Winterhold.
- [ ] Bring one of the helmets for identification.
[ ] Wait for Lutecia to contact you.
- [ ] Ask her for advice.
[ ] Other?
DM Note: If you look at ultima333's
map, you are at (approximately) 'v'. Flan is currently unaware of any other exits to Blackreach, and she has not yet seen the Silent City.
