Chapter 2 - The Second Day of Pelor's Rest

[matt_s]

Celeg sure wished he had those fancy spider silks after getting an icy soaking during the river crossing. After reaching the far side, he had, shivering the while, undid his own boots, changed out his socks, and then continued on. But he was still cold. He had been cold before. It was when you stopped being cold when there was no cause for the stopping that was worth true worry. Gert's remark is worth a chuckle and small yet genuine smile.

Indeed, merit is parceled out in equal if not greater measure to beasts as it is to the free peoples. Riding through the wilderness or the plains on horseback, it is like those contemplative moments with a friend where an endless silence contains bottomless depths of meaning. And it beats walking. Good to see you are in high spirits.

When they arrive at the mine, Celeg will take a close look at one of the torches. Obviously magical, he thinks. A hand is ungloved and held against the flickering orange and Celeg waits for the swelling warmth that may never come.

Nothing to do but go in, is there? asks Celeg.

 

[Caystodd]

Gert stood at the edge of the high wall of the keep and looked over. The drop made her stomach churn. Getting up was easy. Trees grew near to the keep now, and climbing vines crawled the walls. Getting down would be harder.

Gert turned her attention to the nearest torch and said out loud what Celeg had already discovered: "Magic."

She stooped down and looked at the base of the flame. "They should not still be burning. Either someone here is keeping the magic up or...." Gert blew on the flame. It crackled and sparked. "Unstable. Interesting. The magic isn't right. The magical energy that is powering the flames is not properly attuned. There is some source of magic here. It's leaking energy that is powering these torches, even after all these years. That magic may be potent. We should be careful."

[Butchern]

The keep's long walls ran roughly north to south. It's short walls ran east to west.

On the north end of the keep a large crumbling edifice cast a long shadow across the courtyard. The edifice had, years ago, been the entrance to the keep. It was now an impassable mound of stone and fallen trees. Some great force had collapsed the entrance and the trees around it.

On the south end of the keep a large stone fort sat atop the wall. A snow-covered stone stairwell descended from the fort down to the center of the courtyard.

A wide walkway ran around the tops of the walls, and gently curving curtain walls formed the north and south ends of the courtyard. There were windows in those walls indicating that round tower-like walls at the north and south end had interior spaces behind them, though it was not obvious how those spaces might be accessed.

In the center of the courtyard sat a massive hole. It was almost perfectly round and dark. From their perch atop the wall, the heroes could not see the bottom of the hole, nor could they see any obvious way to descend into the mine, if this was, indeed, the mine.

[SirLoganofGilead]

As they moved into the keep Aron began his rituals of checking for recent passage. He looked for tracks, for anything that may have been disturbed, and tried to breathe deeply to get a sense of what else may be around. As he inhaled the cold gripped his lungs, and he coughed hard. The cough caused his eyes to water, and for the moment he gave up on looking for signs of life.

When they found the hole, Aron went to the edge and tried to look down. When he could only see darkness, he pulled his pack from his shoulder and removed a torch from the bag. He used one of the magical flames to light his torch and went back to the dark hole. He held the torch over the hole to see if it illuminated anything that would help them figure this place out. "I could drop it down there, but then we lose the torch."

[matt_s]

We could just toss down one of the magical torches. I wouldn't rely on one of those for light in any case. But otherwise we could spare one of our torches I reckon.

I think climbing up to the top of the fort or as high as we can get safely and looking down could be useful. Don't want to slip and break our necks.

Celeg scans what he can see of the hole. Is it wrought by tool or by magic? Is it too round to be made by mundane tools or simple geology? And are there relics of or indications of old mining equipment about that could provide insight into what took place here...?

I don't think the dwarves left in a real hurry from what the townsfolk said and I think they told it honestly. But maybe they left a journal or log behind, perhaps in the fort. Or perhaps not.

[Caystodd]

On 1/21/2024 at 10:34 AM, SirLoganofGilead said:

"I could drop it down there, but then we lose the torch."

Gert nodded, thinking.

"I say drop it. If it disturbs something down there, better to find out now, while were up here. And if we can see the torch light from higher up as Celeg suggests, it may help me calculate the depth or a better way down."

Gert assumed that the dwarves used some equipment for descending into the mine, if this was indeed the entrance. She began looking around for signs of it. She found it unlikely they would have taken it with them.

[SirLoganofGilead]

Aron nodded at Gert, her argument was exactly why he had lit the torch, to begin with. He made sure the flame was caught well on the torch, reached out his arm, and dropped the torch straight down the hole. "Hopefully we see something useful." He watched the torch the entire way down, doing his best to see if something of value was cast into the light.

[matt_s]

Celeg from his relatively high vantage could see a good deal. Not nearly as many useful things though. Still, something was better than nothing. When splitting wood, the fine point of the axe was a wedge that allowed the savvy woodsman fracture logs the size of a strong man's torso.

Looks to be a sight near two hundred feet down the maw of that thing. There are some rocks that could do for footholds in a pinch on the side of the hole closest to me, he calls out from the crenelated battlement. I won't trust them with any great weight for long, but far better than a long plunge into the abyss.

You good folks find anything that we could use or salvage?

Celeg had spent some time riding with Garthamogus the Besieger. When Garthamogus was sober and even more so when he was drunk he would recount in great and enthusiastic detail the contraptions he had made to scale walls, batter them down, or tunnel beneath them. For all his inventions however the old man had found the most success with the tried and true "pile dirt against the wall and walk up it".

[Blue Firebird]

It would be so simple to jump. A part of her considers it. Could whatever lies below be worse than what she unearthed along with Melisara those years ago? Doubtful.

 

Seresse winces, imagining the panicked cries of otherwise stout companions. And if they make the same choice I did? Could she live with that?

 

Doubtful.

 

She lean over the edge, looking down at the torch. "Let me know if you need help assembling the contraption. Once we are ready, I can help. I can see in the dark, and I'm willing to climb down there." Or jump.

[Caystodd]

"Over here!" Gert called. Her head throbbed at the noise and she winced. "I found their gear," she added, more quietly this time.

Down in the courtyard, directly across from the entrance to the mine, Gert stood in front of a large wooden door that she had pushed open. Behind the door, in an alcove in the wall, lay the remains of the machinery used to descend the mine.

Gert studied the equipment with her head cocked to one side. She had a pretty good eye for these things, though she was no builder.

The apparatus featured a large, hand-forged winch equipped with a system of thick ropes and pulleys, that, when fully deployed, hung from a sturdy wooden frame. The long legs of the frame anchored around the hole in deep-set stone sockets. A sturdy wooden platform, banded in iron, would be suspended by from the ropes when the apparatus was upright. The winch had dual handles and an emergency stop to make it easy to safely raise and lower the platform with the appropriate application of manpower. The winch could be operated from the frame, outside the mine, or it could be operated from the platform itself, so leaving someone behind was not necessary.

"Looks heavy, but shouldn't be hard to assemble."

[matt_s]

On 1/31/2024 at 4:55 PM, Caystodd said:

"Over here!" Gert called. Her head throbbed at the noise and she winced. "I found their gear," she added, more quietly this time.

Down in the courtyard, directly across from the entrance to the mine, Gert stood in front of a large wooden door that she had pushed open. Behind the door, in an alcove in the wall, lay the remains of the machinery used to descend the mine.

Gert studied the equipment with her head cocked to one side. She had a pretty good eye for these things, though she was no builder.

The apparatus featured a large, hand-forged winch equipped with a system of thick ropes and pulleys, that, when fully deployed, hung from a sturdy wooden frame. The long legs of the frame anchored around the hole in deep-set stone sockets. A sturdy wooden platform, banded in iron, would be suspended by from the ropes when the apparatus was upright. The winch had dual handles and an emergency stop to make it easy to safely raise and lower the platform with the appropriate application of manpower. The winch could be operated from the frame, outside the mine, or it could be operated from the platform itself, so leaving someone behind was not necessary.

"Looks heavy, but shouldn't be hard to assemble."

Celeg whistled at the sight.

Ol' Garthamogus the Besieger himself would blush at the sight of that. Let's haul it out near the edge, give it a good once over, anchor it down, and generally speaking get to work.

Rolling the heavy equipment over logs like the architects of the monuments of old who had raised statues and obelisks the capstone of which weighed more than entire Redback village inn by Celeg's reckoning was tough work. But it was straightforward enough. Out in the open, Celeg found Gert's assessment to be wholly accurate. A bit rusty and gummed up, but a bucket of industrial grease tucked away and reconstituted with a bit of stirring and straining allowed the workings to turn with an almost eerie silence. There was inertia to it the device being heavy as it was but with the muck gone and the outstanding craftsmanship of the dwarves which Celeg's opinion of had grown from healthy appreciation to outright reverence of a sort devoted to few things his family close friends and Pelor himself among them they turned and they turned easily with nary a squeak and when they began to move they did not stop to move even with a force applied by Celeg that was diminutive in comparison to anything more than the weight of a feather.

I've positioned it near those knobby handholds on this wall there. That along with life lines tied around ourselves should provide an additional measure of confidence. Let's send down some dumb weight first. Plenty of rocks and what have to work with if need be.

And after that, well if most of this is my craftsmanship or rather my craftsmanship in restoring the dwarven works, it don't sit well with my honor to have someone else risk their neck as the first one down. The artisan's code not chivalry, that is.

[matt_s]

Celeg steps onto the platform. He insisted on being in the first group but would not demand in being the only person to make the descent. That would be more chauvinism than honor he thought.

With an anxious sigh, he put a gloved hand on the lever embossed with dwarven lettering. Probably a hymn to the Dwarven Gods of Crafts and Mining, but possibly instructions that he was not able to read. Celeg could go either way on that account.

Here's to it, he said once any of his companions who wanted to make the trip were gathered, and then pulled the lever.

[Caystodd]

Gert helped Celeg assemble the pieces, but it was largely his work that got the machinery working. The platform swayed under her feet when she jumped onto it. She grabbed a rope and craned her neck to see down into the darkness below them.

"Well, that's not terrifying at all."

She fiddled with the leather thong that held her bow to her pack but decided against it. The quarters were too close. She reached behind her to the side of her pack. Her hand found the cold handle of her short blade. She unlatched the strap and pulled the blade free.

"I have been in many dark caves," she said to the others. "We should be ready for anything."

[Butchern]

Celeg cranked the wench and the platform slowly descended out of the light and into the darkness.

The sides of the perfectly round entrance continued down for about fifty feet until it opened into a wider, natural cave. Celeg cranked the platform down about another hundred feet until it came to rest on a wooden frame that had been built on top of a raised stone floor. All around them, the darkness concealed the details of the cavern they had landed in, but it stretched out in both to the south and east of the platform.

Around the place where the platform landed, barrels and other evidence of a once-active mine remained. The cavern was quiet and dark and cold.

[matt_s]

On 2/4/2024 at 3:56 PM, Caystodd said:

"I have been in many dark caves," she said to the others. "We should be ready for anything."

Celeg nods and slips his own sword out of the scabbard. A good arming sword, enough reach and a good cutting edge for use on horseback although a saber or lance would be better but this would do well enough in most scraps and a fine enough point and stout enough construction to drive through even the most well crafted mail rings against an armor foe. If he had to Celeg reckoned he could even drive it between the seams of plate harness but that would be no easy thing and he had in any case killed nothing beyond animals taken in a hunt.

But it was a good ol' honest sword and if he failed in combat it would be on him not that finely annealed steel.

He held up a torch. It would make them very visible from a ways off but he did need light to see after all. He spotted the barrels and went over to take a look. Probably mundane stores most of which removed during the departure.

In a clear whisper, Celeg says,

Seems safe enough right here for the moment. South or east? Seems to be distinction without a difference to me. Air seems cold down here but hardly a surprise, that. So far, just a cave.

If we have to pick by chance, why not east?