Move 168: Another Den of Death
The Garlstone Mines--Morning, 4 Eleasias 1374The group walked down the lit tunnel for about 400' until it opened into the next chamber. It was a dull uninspired cavern compared to the colorful one they had just left, the only feature of note being a scalloped depression in the northern floor area. At the far end of the cavern, a narrow tunnel continued farther back into the mines.
The tunnel leading out of the southern end of the cavern was barely 5' wide. It curved around for about 100' before opening into a cavern almost as large as the Blue Garl Cavern, where the fight with Ranchefus and the other priests had taken place. The cavern itself had walls that had been extensively worked back when the mines were active, but that was hardly the first thing to catch attention here. For those who had seen the desecrated temple of Tyr in keep in the Thornwood, the scene was similar, although on a larger scale. The walls and floor were splattered with blood and gore, body parts were scattered on and around an altar that had been set up along the southeastern wall, and the smell of death lingered in the room although no whole corpses remained here.
"Sweet Mystra . ." muttered Aloysius as he turned away from the gory scene. "You don't suppose those are the . . .prisoners?" he asked to no one in particular.
Jana swallowed hard, several times. "Oh, gods," she whispered. She grew increasingly pale as she looked around the room. "Do-- do you all want to clean this up, like we did in that room at the keep, or just get the hells outta here?"
"Gods, what a monster," Renn choked as he entered the cavern behind everyone else.
"That priest desperately needs relieved of his mortal coil." Blacky said as he looked around in disgust. "We should do whatever is needed to remove the evil from this place."
"Is that altar one specifically constructed for Cyric, or is it one for another god that hath been corrupted?" replied Aloysius. "Perhaps we should set this place alight as we had intended for the cavern with the cabin and the other bodies."
He lowered his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.
"Perhaps burning would be for the best," Renn said as he studied the chamber assiduously. "Elsewise I could attempt to bless the altar, I'm quite sure Corellon's blessing would ruin any magics attempted upon the slab.
"Oh...look there," Renn added, pointing to the southwestern corner of the cavern. "Behind those boulders, I see another tunnel entrance behind them."
"Perhaps we should continue then?" said Aloysius. "We can decide how best to address these horrors when we return."
"Sounds like a sound plan, likely Ranchefus went out that way if it is indeed an exit." Blacky agreed.
"Recall that Ranchefus works in league with the orcs," replied Aloysius. "Yon tunnel be not on Grizzler's map. 'Tis likely that orcs may abound once we leave the mapped area."
He looked around soberly at the group. "If e'er we were inclined to send forth a stealthy scout, mayhap now be the time," he added hesitantly.
"I don't particularly want to wait around in this room." Daelen stated emphatically. "But if a scout can find the enemy and allow us to attack them at an advantage, great."
"I don't think it'd be a good idea for anyone to go down there alone," Jana said, glancing at both Echo and Arachne as she spoke. "Let's just do whatever we're going to do here, then all of us get the hell outta here, okay?" She swallowed hard a few more times, definitely looking queasy.
A slightly closer inspection of the tunnel entrance revealed that, although it was somewhat hidden, it was a decent size tunnel, about 10' wide, and it was not lit.
"If prisoners are nearby, they are likely somewhere down that tunnel," advocated Aloysius. "We can't just stop looking here, as much as I'd like to. I say that we continue down the tunnel, either as a group or with an advanced scout."
Echo said, "Let's just all go. This probably isn't a good time to split up."
"Renn, can you make out who the shrine is to?" Azrun peered at it closely trying to figure it out for himself.
Arachne grunted once, a noise that might've been as much irritation as disgust, and began picking her way across the floor toward the altar. "Couldn't even worship a god that valued neatness," she muttered to herself. "Though I suppose that a predilection for tidying up, with materials such as these, might create an impression of cold cruelty instead of hideous abandon. Clearly, the solution is to not engage in this sort of practice, but that's probably a solution to a problem that our foe doesn't choose to be aware of... Still, he leaves these decorations to impress the visitors so we might as well have a look..." Not touching the mess unless she absolutely has to, Arachne inspects the miscellaneous body parts.
"Mmm?" Arachne glanced back from her inspection. "No, I'm not eager to go scouting that way," she allowed. "Wasn't in the other dark tunnel, either. Renn can tell you. The Crab Claws place. But if someone could at least look to see if that tunnel is lit or not, that might be informative. Probably, it's not -- and if it isn't, could you look around the entrance to see if torches or lanterns customarily were lit at that point? I realize that Ranchefus had access to magical lighting, but if the tunnel _does_ lead to someone else's realm, the other owners -- such as orcs -- might've preferred to leave the place in darkness." She went back to studying the bones.
"Mmmm..." Arachne was still contemplating the gory altar. "Why pick _this_ room to put a bloody altar in? I always thought that priests would want their sacred space to be somewhat removed from everyday traffic, but if that tunnel leads to orcs or prisoners, there would likely be a lot of coming and going through this room. So, all of Ranchefus's people would have to _see_ all this blood and bits. Frequently. They couldn't hide their thoughts from the grue. Ranch's god might like that." She came toward the tunnel entrance. "I wonder how he got the blood to spatter so far? Practically had to wave around the bleeding chunks.... Yuck."
"I suspect that we may well encounter porcine enemies within this tunnel," said Aloysius grimly. "I have yet a spell of magical sleep as well as an incantation that creates a web like the spell I used before. I also have a spell that . . . doesn't do very much at all, I'm afraid."
He looked around at the horrid scene within the cavern. "Whatever we find, we can hardly expect it to be more disturbing than this. At least . . . . I hope not."
Wringing his hands nervously, he waited for the others to head towards the tunnel, if in fact they were inclined to do so.
"Meaning no offense, wizard, but how will a spell that does nothing help us?" Daelen asked skepticaly but patiently.
"Perhaps it's merely that it doesn't do very much against porcine enemies within a tunnel," Arachne suggested. "I'd like to know what it _does_ do, though."
"I can't expect," Arachne said, "but I _do_ hope. This mess, after all, is dead. For everything here, the suffering is over. But if we do succeed in finding prisoners, who are still alive with their memories... I think that that has the potential to be much more disturbing. So who's in front?" she asked.
"Probably more disturbing that you can imagine," Echo said in a quiet voice.
"And I'd like to keep it that way," Arachne replied softly, "my imagination, I mean."
Aloysius lowered his head momentarily before responding. "There mayhap arise circumstances in which that incantation may prove useful. Such a circumstance hath not arisen as yet, but 'tis not out of the question."
He arched his eyebrows high. "No offense taken, so long as thy sword is kept at the ready whilst we search yon tunnel."
"It creates illusions," replied Aloysius, "albeit not very good ones. Dogs that growl and frighten no one, and fans of flame that give off no heat - that sort of thing."
"That sounds extremely useful," Arachne said. "Can you make the sound of clanking armor, so that someone might be confused as to which way we're coming from? Or perhaps multiply shadows, so -- again – our numbers are misleading? Can your illusions move around, so that a party of adventurers might come around the corner of a tunnel, see a guard squadron of orcs and run away from them again, enticing the orcs to run after them? Granted, the illusions might not be that helpful once we've gone charging into battle, but before one starts there are lots of possibilities."
Aloysius pondered Arachne's question for a moment. "I suppose that I could produce an illusion of pretty much anything that I have seen myself. Otherwise, it would not be as convincing. Howe'er, the illusions are primarily visual. The sounds made are very minor. I suppose that the spell could be useful to provide a diversion in the right circumstance."
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