It is noon, after the 4th morning of training by Trimyrai and Froskan. Both of them are quietly excited, as they are starting to see results from their training, which will be completed the next day.

The date is the 17th of Winter Firstmoon. There is a moderate snowstorm going on, but that is unlikely to affect you in your travels underground. The warmth of the city diminishes the winds and the snow accumulation.

Your group leaves the inn, goes south to the temples along the Avenue of the Divine (part of the Primus Road), then west towards The Pit. The Avenue is crowded with the usual shopping carts and trade bartering. The crowds get thinner as you get closer to the end.The Primus Road goes all the way to The Pit, then abruptly ends. The hole in the ground is 50' wide, with edges of rough stone. For some reason, it reminds you of an unhealed stab wound in the earth. There are no buildings within 100' of The Pit, besides abandoned shacks, and several guard stations. There are low fences, spiked poles, and caltrops around the area, to discourage the curious.

The guards have a strange mix of boredom (nothing has happened in decades) and terror (being next to The Pit). They are telling you to turn around and leave, but then Marion and Sallah come running up (a few minutes late), waving the parchments that officially allow them to enter The Pit. The guards recognize them. Seeing that your party is with them, the guards make an opening in the barricade to allow you through.

At the edge of The Pit, you get a brief wave of vertigo, looking down at the inky blackness that has no bottom in sight. Marion and Sallah are preparing some equipment, and say a few words.

Marion: "Remember what we talked about yesterday. Use caution, stay safe, but most of all" (smiles) "keep us alive. If you decide that we need to run from a danger, we will lead the way so we don't get lost down there."

Sallah: "Like the Underdark, there are creatures and terrain that can be deadly, if you don't stay alert. Very dangerous." (Looks at Marion.) "You go first."

(Anything to say before heading in?)

Isk summons his glaive in the trademark wisp of hushed screams, twirls it with a flourish, and says, "Ready."

Trimyrai: (to everyone) "We'll do our best."

 Froskan opens the hood on the lantern hanging from his pack to provide light reveal anything invisible that might show up as they go.

Marion and Sallah each have a rope of climbing. The walls of the opening are vertical, and then beyond vertical. The magic ropes obey their instructions, and tie to a ledge 40' below that you can't currently see. The ropes have knots to assist with the climbing. "We were lucky to find that ledge. We tried using Fly spells and magic carpets, but we attracted too much unwanted attention that way."

Although none of the party members have gone deep-sea diving, entering The Pit has that sort of experience. The pressure from the air becomes more intense as you go deeper. Sallah and Marion light up torches, while Froskan activates his lantern. The light (even from Froskan's magic lantern) seems diminished. Looking up, you can see the opening 40' above you. The noon sky is a bright grey (with snow clouds), but that light does not penetrate the darkness down here. The air is cold, but not freezing. The rock walls have a wet, slimey feel to them.

The passages that lead deeper are an unusual mixture. Most of the time it is the rough rock you would expect from underground caverns. But sometimes it is soft soil (like from a prairie), and there are even stretches of cobblestone.

Every few minutes, you come across an iron spike in the walls, with numbers scratched in the sides. "We left these from previous trips. These help us navigate in the maze down here."

After half an hour, they pause to look at their map and look at the walls. "There should be a spike marker here, but it is gone. And instead, a 5' wide section of the wall is gone." They seem eager to find out what happened to their spike and this wall.

As the group descends into the pit, Isk uses his thumb and forefinger to hold his nose closed for moment.  He does this at regular intervals a couple times before saying, "A trick I read about in a book by Lord Valsalva, an acclaimed explorer of the ocean depths. Hold your nose closed and gently blow into it.  Your ears will equalize with the air pressure."

Reverie winces by the pressure of her ears, pressing her palm on her ear a little. Then, she looks at Isk, listening to him and then does the same action according to his words. The air pressure has become equalized, and yet, it hurts one of her ears slightly. Wincing slightly. “It works indeed,” she replies. Though, her attention shifts to the researchers, frowning in confusion. “Does that mean the mark and the wall vanished within few days?”

(btw happy Halloween! c:)

Quote from Elliethedream >>

Though, her attention shifts to the researchers, frowning in confusion. “Does that mean the mark and the wall vanished within few days?”

(btw happy Halloween! c:)

(Happy Halloween!)

"Our last trip was 2 days ago, and it wasn't like this... Doesn't look like it was chiseled away, either. Almost like it was scooped away, like hot wax or clay... We found some nice gemstones in a chamber, over this way. We should see if this phenomena happened to that room."

Trimyrai: (to Marion and Sallah) "Do you two usually come here every two days?"

(OOC: happy halloween)

Reverie hums at their statement. "If your words are true, then there isn't a way for that wall to be moved by force." Then she looks around the area if there is a hint or a clue that the wall disappeared by something or someone else's force.

Investigation - 17

Quote from EmperorKarino >>

Trimyrai: (to Marion and Sallah) "Do you two usually come here every two days?"

"Sometimes its 3 or 4 or more days. Depended on when our previous bodyguards were ready, and how much the city officials were giving us a hard time about our reports on what we see down here."

Quote from Elliethedream >>

Reverie hums at their statement. "If your words are true, then there isn't a way for that wall to be moved by force." Then she looks around the area if there is a hint or a clue that the wall disappeared by something or someone else's force. Investigation - 14

Reverie notices some loose soil on the rocky ground in front of that wall. It is all rock dust and pebbles, but it almost looks like... excrement. (Bleh!) The wall itself looks very smooth, so it wasn't chopped by picks.

Froskan also uses Isk's trick to clear the pressure from his ears, giving a slight sigh of relief as he does so.  As they reach the scooped out section of wall, he starts to grow more concerned, wondering what could have done such a thing.  Their guides' eagerness and seeming lack of worry does make him feel a bit better, but he searching through his memory, trying to think of any creature or magic he knows of that could have done something like this.

Arcana: 10

Quote from VanderLegion >>

Froskan also uses Isk's trick to clear the pressure from his ears, giving a slight sigh of relief as he does so.  As they reach the scooped out section of wall, he starts to grow more concerned, wondering what could have done such a thing.  Their guides' eagerness and seeming lack of worry does make him feel a bit better, but he searching through his memory, trying to think of any creature or magic he knows of that could have done something like this.  Arcana: 11

The equalize-the-ear-pressure helps quite a bit, but at least some of the pressure is from something magical or ominous. The quality is somewhat different, but you also felt pressure from the alien atmosphere in the Shadowfell.

Froskan mentions that beings from the Elemental Plane of Earth can swim through stone and solid ground, like you walk through air. They eat minerals and crystals, and might consider an iron spike to be like hard candy. (He isn't that interested in this subject, and wasn't paying that attentive when learning about this from one of the hermits in the wilderness.)

For all their talk of being cautious, Marion and Sallah are swept up in their curiosity, and march forwards. You are able to see more signs of rocks formations being disturbed, so you feel you are on the right path.

The current path ends in a larger cavern (50' by 60', roughly). For most of the party, it is just another cavern. (First of the Perception rolls: Jack 4, Froskan 6, and Reverie 8.) Iskander (perception 14) is the one to point out 2 objects embedded in the far wall. The pair of gemstones are each larger than your heart. They haven't been cut yet, but they could be worth hundreds of gold pieces, maybe even thousands.

Everyone is happy about your good fortune, but then Trimyrai (perception 22) tells everyone to be alert. He points to rock outcroppings near those gems, and says "those are arms". In a moment, you see a pair of rocky figures emerge from the wall of the cavern, without disturbing it. They are made of some flexible stone, a bit taller than a dwarf, and broader, with three arms. There is a yellow crystal-like eye on its chest, between the two arms that are in your direction. There is a circular maw on top of its body. (They look like this: link )

To your dismay, they grab the large gems out of the wall, and drop it in their mouths. The teeth grind the gems into a pebbles, and are swallowed.

While eating, they see your party. They are making hand gestures at your party, and making noises: a mix of rumbles (like an earthquake), clacking (like a rockfall), and screeching (like metal being twisted). You aren't sure what to make of these noises, but then you notice that it is being repeated.

Trimyrai: (to the party) "Maybe if we leave it alone, it will leave us alone?"

Reverie hums as she looks at Trimyrai, nodding once. ”I think it would leave us alone if we are leaving it alone. Let us try do that.”

“I don’t know. These things could attack us the instant we turn away- ye probably don’t want to be bit by those.” Jack says, referencing the gem-munching they just witnessed. “Reverie, dont ye have the helmet? Can you understand them?”

Reverie looks back at Jack, realizing what she had for a long time. ”Let me try if this would translate those words for me, ” she says as she activates her helmet.

Cast, comprehend language.

Reverie activates her helmet. The odds noises were Terran, the local dialect of the Elemental Plane of Earth.

Reverie translates, but even with the magic helmet, sometimes it is hard to find the right words. (Consider someone with a heavy Texan accent listening to someone from New England reading Shakespearean prose.) They are saying: "If you-mostly-bags-of-water can underatand, Xorn-we are not here for fight-war. Do you-mostly-bags-of-water agree to peace-not-fight?"

The helmet allows her to understand the language, but not to speak them. However, Marion has anthropology training. She believes she can make basic gestures and mix in the simplest phrases of Terran that Reverie has translated. If you keep the ideas simple, you can talk back to the pair of Xorn.

Isk tightens his grip around the glaive causing it to shunt back into it's pocket dimension in a wisp of smoke.  "That should be a pretty clear indicator of our intentions."