Move 140:  Old Grizzler Brings a Map

The Baron of Mutton--Night, 1 Eleint 1374 DR

The members of the group spent the afternoon in a variety of ways, but eventually, everyone reconvened in the common room of the Baron of Mutton for an evening meal.  Garyld sat at the bar, drinking alone, and a few other villagers made their way in.  Andren made his way around slowly to tables, and behind the bar, Barthlew watched his sad faced identical twin with a worried expression.  An elderly dwarf, well past his prime and using a gnarled stick to aid his steps, entered the inn and headed over to Arachne with a map.

"Here it be," Old Grizzler told her.  "The Garlstone Mines, at least as they was back in their day, and mine.  These young miners 'round here these days don't know a thing about what they're doing.  They're just lucky the lot of them ain't been killed.  Mining's no place for foolishness, that's what Old Grizzler always say."

The dwarf sat down and plopped the map in the middle of the table, paying no mind to the fact that food and drinks were all around.  "That here's," he said pointing at one of the fancifully named areas on the map, "the dream cave.  Called it that 'cause..." Old Grizzler coughed slightly before adding, "A walk down memory lane is a thirsty trip for an old dwarf like Grizzler." He looked around the table expectantly.

Cethyran sat a bit apart from the large group and watched.

Aloysius looked at the map as Grizzler spoke.  As Grizzler paused, he asked, "Attempting to describe thy recollections causes thee thirst?  'Twould seem that thou art in the right place.  Allow me."

Aloysius walked off towards the bar.

A few moments later, Aloysius returned from the bar with a mug of something, which he placed in front of
Grizzler.  "Hopes have I that this shall prime thy memory," he said, returning to his seat.  He waited to see if Grizzler would continue his explanation of the map.

Old Grizzler accepted the drink from Aloysius and took a gulp before picking up again, "Anyhow, the Dream Cave, it was called that 'cause a lot of miners swore that sleeping there would give you dreams of the one you would marry.  I never had a dream in there though.  Then again,  I never got married either," he grinned for a moment and took another drink.

"This pillar here was called the Queen of Souls.  A lot of the men believed Lady Selune watched over them while they was in those dark places where Her dark sister was more likely to lurk, so they left offerings there.  And over here, we called this the Flitch of Bacon 'cause the cave has red striations, so it looks like a side of cured pork."

"This rock formation looked like the head of a cat, so I guess the name was obvious.  Before these caves was mines, the lady bandit Pargenter used 'em as a hideout.  There a legend that says that cat's waiting for her return so you'll hear a lot of miners call it Pargenter's Pussy."

"And this little passage is called the Poached Egg  'cause it has stalactites with globes on the end, white with a yellow center.  They do look something like eggs, but now Grizzler wonders if the men who started naming these caves just didn't want some breakfast."

"The Grand Cascade...now there's a pretty one.  The north wall is like a big frozen waterfall made out of rock.  It's quite a sight.  That's the cavern with the shaft, that'll take you down to the lower level."

"The Blue Garl Cavern is where the most and the best garlstones were.  Made somebody a rich man, I'm betting.  The Dome o' Marthammor Duin.  The pillar in the middle there looks like his mace.  That's where Grizzler went to pray.  Nothing against the human gods, but there's something about saying a word to one o' your own."

"The Crab Petals...don't much know why there called that.  Some fool said they looked like a cross between crab claws and flower petals, but he was probably drunk as well as a fool.  The Chamber of the All-Hearing Gods has an ear shaped depression in the floor where folks would sometimes whisper their prayers.  I guess you're starting to see that miners could be a religious lot back in those days...mining was dangerous.  Never knew when you weren't going to come back up.  These were scary...not dwarven made so I never trusted 'em too much."

"This Fairyland place has a lot of different colored rocks...orange, red, yellow, blue.  And some say you can hear some faerie kin...the rappers...digging down below iffen you listen hard enough.  The Grand Cavern gave up nearly as many garlstones as the Blue Garl.  Ah, but Grizzler misses mining somedays.  Nothing else like it.  Fishing's not bad though."  In the course of talking, the dwarf had consumed the drink that Aloysius brought him and a couple more besides.

Daelen opened his mouth to comment but then glanced at the women sitting at the table and thought better of it.

"The cave seems to have alot of history, any tales of monsters we might find there?" he asked instead,  "After that glade it seems to me that some legends seem to carry more truth than I thought."

"If there'd been monsters in it, we wouldn't have been mining it.  It'd been cleared long before I started mining there.  But I got no idea what might be have got in there in  the sixty years that's passed since it closed," the dwarf replied.

Aloysius had listened intently to the old dwarf, trying to commit as much of what he said to memory as
possible.  When Grizzler finally took a break from talking, the mage spoke up.

"Pardon me, sir, but where exactly is this mine?  Can you tell us how to get there?"

"The mine's in the Blanryde Hills, a couple miles north of Carman's mines," Old Grizzler answered.

Cethyran watched the group of mostly humans with dismay evident on her pale face. Almost unconsciously, she pulled back away from the group. She turned to Arachne, and during a lull in the conversation, asked, "Arachne, would you give me the directions to this grove you spoke of? I cannot see me traveling with..." she indicated the others with a small glance. "Nor can I see them enjoying my company. If you would tell me where the glade is, I will go there and see if I can cleanse it."

When she saw him come into the inn, Arachne set about digging in her purse.  She was still looking when Aloysius went to wet Old Grizzler's whistle.  Eventually, she found what she wanted and sat with it under her hands listening intently to the grizzled explanation of the map.  When she turned her attention to talking to Cethyran, however, she forgot about it and left the three coins of gold sitting by themselves on the table.

Arachne tore her attention away from Grizzler's recital to attend to the moon elf's discomfort.  "Well, I could take a stab at giving you directions," she said doubtfully.  "Or show you the way, which I think I'd be better at.  It's pretty near to the Great Rock Dale, you see.  And there's things living in the Great Rock who -- well, you heard me explaining it to Daelen.  Anyway, it's not safe country to be going through alone.  Better to be traveling with company, even if they're likely to be going digging down into some abandoned mine --"

Her voice became quieter.  "Do you see difficulty with these folks because of where they're going or because of who they are?  I mean, I'm not entirely thrilled with going digging into caverns and caves, myself.  You may think that since I'm a gnome, I ought to be thrilled to be going there.  But I grew up in a seacoast town:  I'm a surface girl whose fond memories are all associated with salt air and spray.  I haven't been truly like-home comfortable for months!  And going mining isn't going to change that.  So, if hiding yourself away from the starry sky worries you, I can understand that."  She shrugged.  "Intellectually.  Maybe not really understand that, since I'm sort of accustomed to similar.  I guess that's not really helpful."  She sighed.

"But if it's keeping company with Big People that worries you --"  She stopped.  "Well, no:  You're Big People, too.  Of course, you're elf and some of them aren't.  And I'm gnome and nobody else is.  I expect I'm much less likable than you are, but they put up with me.  I'm useless in a fight and I lose track of things and I often go off alone to do stuff and I'm secretive about the weird magic I practice and I don't mind a little strategic lying -- which irritates the hell out of a certain ranger who lives around here...

"You see, I'm a wicked little gnome."  Arachne smiled.  "I don't really think that.  I think I'm very well-meaning, but I'm also a long way from my home and family and not really powerful enough to hold up any firm moral code.  Not that I believe in inflexible moral codes.  I bend a lot -- so that I build up a catalog of unclean behaviors that I try not to think about.  And I also sometimes just don't pay enough attention to what's going on.  But in spite of all that, these people put up with me.  So it just shows that, in spite of what you may think looking at them, they're very tolerant.  If they put up with me, they're sure to put up with you.  I think some of them even like me.  I expect that you could well come to like some of them -- and tolerate the rest. I mean, Big People aren't really that bad --"  She grinned.  "Present company included.  Of course, you'll never persuade my sister that that's true, but she had to leave home and travel at least a hundred miles into hill country to find a 100% gnomish community and satisfy her prejudice.  Mom and Da are still annoyed with her about that."

Cethyran looked curiously at the gnome. "I don't think it's the idea of 'big people' that bothers me, but it is true, I am unused to humans and their ways. They seem ... loud.  And impatient. And, well, they don't seem to like each other much do they? I would ask if I could help with the healing, but I am almost sure they would take my interference wrongly."

"I mean, my personal beliefs are such that I try to respect each individual's choice, though I tend to favor light, not dark. I guess I am just not used to the N'Quel'Tess. You think they will grow on me, in time?" Ceth asked, earnestly.

Echo stared at her hands for a little while.  She nodded at Jana when she asked about a drink.

"I couldn't help overhearing, if you don't mind me jumping in," she said to Cethyran.  "I don't know if
anyone told you...that place is a dead magic zone.  We need silver weapons to clean it.  We lost two people
up there.  I mean, they lost two people up there.  I was being held captive.  I got captured by a priest of Cyric who's been kidnapping people around here.  There's some orcs too, and another priest that I saw
while I was down there.  They're doing something weird with spellcasters.  Ranchefus, among many other
things, seems to have a thing for undead, making them and commanding them.  If that's your strong point, we could use your help to stop him.  Maybe we'll have the stuff we need to remove the curse on the glade by then."

Arachne smiled.  "I wasn't using Big People literally," she said.  "You're not as tall as the others, certes, but you're probably close enough in stature so that there'd be little difficulty for you over that.  Especially with me around to provide more of an extreme case.  I was using Big People as the 'Not-My-Kind' for _me_ -- for a gnome.  You see, to a gnome, Big People are heavy -- and just so generally excessive.  They eat too much and reach too far and stand so high and make too much noise (you're right about the loudness) and build houses and furniture that are extravagantly generous.  All that space they require -- when I'm feeling critical, it seems to me altogether too much.

"It'd be pretty easy for me to find the lot of them more trouble than it's worth.  And sometimes, there's no getting around the fact that I have to work alone to get something done.  But it's dangerous doing that, and I try to be very careful when I go off alone -- like when I showed up here ahead of the rest of them.  Well, maybe sitting down and chatting with you and Old Grizzler last night wasn't the most cautious tactic I might've taken last night, but I think I got away with it all right."  She smiled again, then frowned.

"Yes, they claw one another with sharp words sometimes.  I think it's a release for a lot of tension.  There's --"  Arachne looked around, then shrugged.  "Unless the walls really do have ears..." she muttered.  "There's an evil priest in the area.  His name is Ranchefus.  We're pretty confident that he's pretty darned evil.  Defiled altars, wrecking people's minds, kidnapping people --bits of evidence like that," she added ironically.  "Also, employs zombies."  She glanced at Ceth.  "I don't think you'd like him.  I know we don't.  He almost certainly has no love for us.  We've already trashed -- I hope -- one of his strongholds.

"But since he's not dead yet, we have to worry whether he might be making active plans to kill us.  Which makes us a wee bit tense and on edge.  Hence the short tempers.  But, by the same token, if you were to offer to help with healing, I truly doubt that such an offer would be viewed as interference."  She smiled again.  "And yes, I think you could get used to the ways of the mayflies.  You have time on your side."

Cethyran nodded slowly, "Perhaps you can use my help. But another question is will you accept it? This is far beyond what I am used to."

"Those undead without free will are not as dangerous, but I would still see them all destroyed. Undead have no place in the natural world. I will go with you for a time. Or, until your friends drive me away." Ceth replied.

"I want your help," Arachne said simply.  "I think we _need_ your help," she added, smiling.  "I know I do:  If I have you with me, maybe the others won't make me run quite so much to keep up.  And the others _aren't_ going to drive you away.  At least, not knowingly," she sighed.  "You may decide that you can't stand our company.  That's always possible.  But I would like it if you could give us a chance to get along together.  It'll probably make it much easier for you to clean up that Glade if you and we do it together."  She frowned.  "All this interest in silver...  I can't tell whether that's for going exploring the mine or if the rest want first to go attack that Glade again."

Jana returned with a container of something as near-lethal as possible and a collection of small cups.  She poured one, handed it to Echo, poured another and mumbled, "Help yourself" to the others before tossing back her drink. She followed that drink with a second, as soon as she could breathe again.

Etienne sat quietly picking at his food and listening to Grizzler. When story time was finished, he finished up his food, excused himself and headed on to his room.

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