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Turn 143.0: The Cavern’s Cold Silence

Posted: 2/18/01

Muscles tensing, Elloharin regards the room. It must be enormous. Touching Canter on the back, he whispers what he has learned about the dimensions of the room, hoping he will pass it on. "Let us go around this 'thing,' if we can."

Storm is crouching low near the front of the group, staring directly at the mysterious, large, rather ominous creature before them. "If thems Caerloon bastards be down here, how'd they be gettin' by this bugger?" It then occurs to him, just as the whispers get to Storm to go around it, that the Caerloonians probably did just that, if this thing had in fact been there when they had arrived.

Hannibal shakes his head, not knowing the answer to that question either. For a moment he wondered to himself whether Storm could see him with his infravision and suddenly it occurs to Hannibal just how ill suited he is to lead.

"Me and my big mouth," he mutters quietly to himself.

Just then, Elloharin makes his way to the front and begins creeping to the left, motioning Hannibal to go to the right. In a rare moment of insight, Storm realizes he should go with Hannibal, as the human doesn't have his and El's ability to see in the dark.

As Hannibal notices the stout come up behind him he reaches back and grabs for his dwarven friend. "You lead, I'm blind in this muck," he whispers to his friend, coaxing the short thief into the lead. Hannibal then grabs the stout's belt as a guide and follows close behind with his sword at the ready.

First, though, before creeping, Storm gauges his surroundings. He looks up, left, and right, struck a little by the size of the cavern. Out of a curiosity sparked by the vastness of the cavern, Storm attempts to judge just how deep below the surface of the earth they are, but the vastness of the cavern is daunting even to the dwarf, and he just can't be sure.

He also looks down at the ground, seeing if the slight fluctuations in heat show him that others have been down here, and if so which way they went. He does, indeed, see some tracks. More than some, there are many, and moving in all directions to the extent that it's difficult to tell where exactly they ultimately lead. One thing is for sure, judging the tracks: many people had been here, and been here recently.

Finally, once satisfied at these findings, he silently hoists one of his blackened long swords and begins creeping to the right in front of Hannibal, tapping him on the shoulder to let him know he'll lead. Storm also motions for them to start moving, as he can see where they're going.

As they creep, Storm searches the walls next to him for any traps, and especially secret doors hidden in the rock. As they begin to move into the room along the wall, Storm can't detect any such things...so far.

His bow out and an arrow notched, El starts creeping around the left side of the chamber. His senses straining to perceive the chamber in more detail. He motions to Hannibal to do the same on the right, hoping that between the two of them, creeping silently, they should gain some sense of the room, and what doors or traps are against the walls. Darkness must now be his ally, stealth his friend. His slight elven frame is silent, in the darkness.

Crayne waits patiently whilst Storm and Hannibal inspect the chamber and the creature that resides within it.

Emma holds very still, waiting and watching. Stealth and subtlety are two areas she gladly admits her non-proficiency. Better to let Storm and Hannibal sniff this one out. She hears Canter pass up the word from Elloharin regarding the dimensions of the cave and then senses his departure with the thieves into the darkness. 'If El's able to see the far walls of the cavern, then he too ought to do well in scouting this thing,' the priestess thinks.

She works her way up to Crayne, pulling Skandor along with her. "Highbrow?" she whispers, "Do you think the Caerloon soldiers would have encountered this creature...and if so...maybe it's already dead. Maybe that's why Storm didn't see any movement from it. They could have slain it on their way past." In the darkness she shrugs as if to indicate it's only an idea, but no one can really make out the motion. "If it's still alive...and they find another exit out of here, we might want to take it and leave this thing be. No use getting beat up by something before we reach our goal, right? It might be better to face it on our way out...or avoid it completely if it remains asleep."

Meanwhile, El continues to explore the room off to the left of the party, and Storm and Hannibal do the same to the right. They move slowly, checking the walls as they go and (in the case of the elf and dwarf) using their exceptional darkness vision to focus on the mysterious "thing" Storm had first noticed. El keeps his back to the wall, facing into the room. He keeps checking the wall behind him, however, just in case there should be any openings into other tunnels or corridors. After a few moments, he judges he is about twenty-five yards from Emma, Crayne, and the others. Then, the elf notices the opening in the wall just ahead of him. It is definitely man-made, with a wide arch-like structure above the opening. He slides quietly along the wall to the edge of the opening, and pokes his head around the corner.

It is another tunnel, alight. It seems endless, at least as far as El can see. About thirty yards down this new tunnel there appear to be a pair of doorways, one on either side of the tunnel. From this position, though, El cannot see if those doorways are blocked by doors, stones, or other mechanisms.

On the other side of the room, Storm continues to lead Hannibal around the edge of the vast cavern. Hannibal keeps his hands on the wall, feeling it's smoothness and general curvature. He widens his eyes in the darkness as he realizes that the wall is curved very gradually, and if it continues, probably forms the large subterranean cavern in the shape of a circle or oval.

For the first few minutes Storm can't see the mysterious "thing" any better than he had when he was standing with the others, but soon their trajectory begins to take them forward of the party's original motion...and toward the "thing." The dwarf narrows his eyes as he strains to make out the shape, and a few minutes later, after a quick glance back to his friends at the entrace (about twenty yards back), he stops and kneels for a better look at the "thing." Hannibal kneels behind him, muscles tensed.

There is a cold silence in the cavern. Each person can hear his or her own heart, and his or her own breaths. But not a footstep echoes, not a sniffle, not the familiar sound of weapons readied and swords unsheathed. Not even the characteristic sound of one dwarf's spit. The darkness is enveloping, like a blanket through which you cannot see. What is on the other side? El and Storm stand the best chances of finding just that out, for Crayne's lightstone, the party's only lit light source, offers little help in an environment of this size. There is also a distinctive smell. It is repugnant, almost acidic, though not overwhelming.

"Well my swords be damned..." Storm whispers to Hannibal over his shoulder.

"What is it? What do you see?" Hannibal replies into the dwarf's ear.

"I think I's seen me one of these befur...it be a long time ago..." the dwarf says. He then describes the creature's features to his fellow thief. Its sharp claws and eight legs, four to a side. Most distinctively, its hard, pointed piercing stinger, normal hoisted over the creature's relatively flat torso, but now lying limp behind the creature, it's sharp point facing straight up. "It be strange, though...it ain't been movin'." Storm then exhales forcefully, determined to get a closer look. Hannibal takes a gulp, feeling a bead of sweat drip from his temple.

Moving a few yards closer, Storm stops short, forcing Hannibal back against the wall with his arm. Then he relaxes, crouching once again. "If I's be seein' what me thinks I's be seein', then we got nothin' to worry 'bout," he whispers to Hannibal.

Hannibal is confused. "What do you mean?" he asks, at the same time glancing back over his shoulder in the direction of the others. There is a faint yellow glow from Crayne's lightstone, but no movement that he can see.

"I's be seein' arrows. The thing be dead," Storm explains. "And..."

"And...what?"

"...I's be seein' two dead Caerloon fellers on the floor in front."

Hannibal takes a step back. The creature the dwarf described certainly wasn't one to be messed with, and it seems that two of the Caerloon party already figured that out. "We should get back and tell the--" He begins, his voice drifing off. His hand, formerly resting upon the wall behind him, seems to have found a little handle, carefully carved into the stone and hidden. It was his instinctive nature to check for these things, combined with the dumb luck of Storm stopping at this particular spot along the wall that led to the discovery.

"Huh?" Storm asks, turning to look at Hannibal. Immediately he sees Hannibal's hand, feeling around this little hidden handle in the wall: a subtle indentation, enough for four fingers to grasp a piece of smooth rock and pull. "I's wouldn't do it," he warns.

"I won't," Hannibal replies, smiling in the darkness to his friend. "But I'm dying to know what would happen." He exhales and takes a deep breath, noticing once again the creature's smell (which is stronger since he is closer to it). "Come, let's tell the others..."

"Arrows you say?" Emma asks Storm to confirm. "Hmm..."

"But if they had a Red Dragon mage with them, why attack it with arrows?" Canter asks.

Crayne answers, "I can think of two possibilities. Either one of the dead soldiers Storm saw was the mage--which I think is unlikely!--or the mage is smart enough, knowing that he may have to battle his way past us to get out of these chambers, to conserve his spells and let the foot soldiers take care of these pesky creatures. Pesky but deadly, it seems!"

"That would make sense," Skandor concurs, "if the mage knows that we are coming after him. For him to know that, he must have been above ground when the battle this morning began. Which means that he isn't too far ahead of us. Maybe eight hours at the most..."

"But we don't know how large these Ancient Chambers are, or where Killner's Vault lies," Emma says, correcting the Sword Bearer. "Eight hours could make a big difference."

"I's didn't get too close a lookin'," Storm says to the others, with a glance to Hannibal at his side. "So there could be more ta see, er somethin' on the dead ones that could help...I dunno..."

"Plus, there's the hidden handle in the wall I discovered," Hannibal says, reminding the others.

"...and the tunnel I discovered," El contributes.

"And we don't know what lies beyond this creature," Skandor says.

"So knowing that time is short, do we check out this--supposedly dead--creatures, test Hannibal's discovery, proceed down El's tunnel," Canter asks, looking around in the dim light of the lightstone, "or see what lies on the other side of the creature?"

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