Celtra stands up after having crouched down to inspect one of the door hinges.  "I'm pretty confident this damage was from the eruption and not an attack.  If there is something else in there, Newts I think you said, then it wasnt a bloody battle for take over, theybjust got here first after the danger passed," she says.  She then looks around a bit more.  "Could be we could find something salvageable out here but I'd guess most of the silver bars would have been taken with or left behind the gate further in."

Taman has Sabastian move further afield, searching the land around them for any sign of anyone else in the area outside of the mountain entrance.

@Taman:

 Azaka nods to Celtra.  "What we need will be inside.  Let us go.  I will go first.'  She steps through the door into the blackness beyond.  'I will need a torch.  Or someone with dark vision."

Celtra gets a torch from her pack and lights it but remains holding it.  "If you are going down, you are not going without me," she says with some finality in her voice.

I suspect the first one was Cimeri, already standing there and looking inside for sometime. As a self-appointed scout (coming in a nice shade of dark purple for easier operation in the shades and with a darvision as a bonus), she stepped in as quietly as she could: Stealth 12 checking the path for traps (the one skill she could not master yet, though) Perception 11 + 3

(Just for the record - Cimeri was not the one discussing cousins - even if she understood that story, she would not remember it or - goddess forbid! - spread out)

Taman would move to join the others.  He casts light on a rock he picks up from the ground and nods to the tunnel.  "I guess we should continue, but I doubt if we will have much luck if we have no smiths to craft the weapons in question."  He glances to the land around.  "I was hoping to find some of the dwarvs still in the area, and make some sort of deal with them, but that does not seem an option here."  He has Sabastian move ahead with the scouts to lead the way inside.

Celtra stumbled a few steps at Taman's comment.  "Uselss... no smith?...  Taman, did you not know?  Have I never mentioned..."  She stops and turns to the others.  "Did I never tell you all that I am a trained smith?  With material, tools and time I could forge a weapon."

Fulcra, "So, i hope everyone is suitably prepared to fight fire newts. I've heard they're three inches long and run around really fast, and if you step on them they explode and melt your shoe. Of course, this was told to me by my cousin Alyssa.  And she didn't know as much about fire newts as she did about kissing. However, I was pretty clear in the past that I neither kissed her, nor liked kissing her, but was just using that as an example of something that is obviously wrong. What else is obviously wrong is going into this volcano blasted mine for some silver, but hey, you never know, we may just find silver weapons without the need for any of Celtra's smithing skills.  Smithing is basically just pushing hot metal around. I feel like she'll be really good at it.  Anyway, ya, so, make sure you don't have burnables on people, the fire newts may be larger and more firey than Alyssa led on. All the same..."  (he continues babbling quietly as they creep into the mine.  He stays near the back apparently as everyone else is so eager to lead....)

(Fulcra has dark vision out to 120 feet in case that matters.)

"Yes I realize you are a smith." taman nods at the comment.  "The problem is that we neither know if the equipment you might need is here, or if we have the time it would take for you to forge the items from scratch."  he shrugs.  "None of that really matters at the moment, as we need to see what it is going to take to clear out the inhabitants here so we can figure it all out first."

[Cimeri, how far ahead from the party do you usually lead, so that the light from the party's torch/LED glow rock doesn't ruin your stealth?]

Cimeri quietly steps in front of Azaka, who let's her get a good lead so as to not ruin her stealth.  "Warrior," she says to Celtra, "will you hold our middle with your torch?  We should all be able to see with you there.  I will follow behind Purple One, at a distance." She looks at each of you except Cimeri.  "Good or ill, I feel this is your best chance for survival."

  @Cimeri:

 You step inside the volcano; the immediate sense is dry heat, that continues to grow as the tunnel slope gradually down.  Scorch marks, similar to those outside, mar the walls where once there were impressive reliefs of dwarven iconography, now scratched and ruined.  The tunnel continues through several stairways leading down...down...down...  The heat grows with each flight of stairs descended.  

After more than half a mile, Cimeri returns to tell you...

 "I think the mine can still be operational. There are minecart tracks and tunnels that were worked on. There are three tunnels - tracks run through two of them. We can get there by another stairway. I have not seen workers, but there is light there, you would not need torch anymore."

(For scouting purpose Cimeri would stay at least 10ft away from the deem light area, when someone in group carries a lightsource.)

Bryn would follow near the rear of the group. She'd run her hand against the walls. She sensed the heat. The druid would watch closely to how the tunnel systems changed as they pressed forward. paying attention to what would be man-made and what could be natural. She'd also wonder how recent it's been active and whether it was due to erupt again.

Celtra was a little frustrated, she wanted to be up front as distance was difficult but no light meant she was at more of a disadvantage.  Resigning herself she take the torch saying, "Yes, I'll hold the torch... and the middle.  I guess middle allows me to run to either side if there is an attack."

“We can change position at the junction ahead” says Azaka. 
[cimeri, what stairway?]

Taman stays in the middle of the group with his glowing rock held to give him light to see by.  He would have Sabastian  moving ahead, and helping to scout though.

Fulcra wanders along behind, making quiet little "doo dee dooo doo doo dee doo dooot" noises.  They're so quiet they're unlikely to ruin anybody's attempt at stealth, but they certainly let Taman know that he's still behind him. 

The rocky ground beneath his boots was dry and warm. He could feel the heat through the souls of his feet. The rough hewn stone of the walls pressed in on each sides. With each step the group got deeper and deeper. The shadows around Fulcra welcomed him to them, wrapping themselves around his flesh, holding him near, pulling him away from the bright light issuing from Taman's glowing rock. His eyes struggled to cope with the blackness around him, behind him, beyond the light, and the bright glow that stifled his attempts to see beyond it.  Within him two personalities warred. "Doo dippity doo doo deet...." issued from his lips, still belonging to the creature that crawled around the surface of his soul practicing its deception to the world. Within, the rest of his soul, wounded and missing a part of itself, snaked around in the darkness, resenting the chains that the deception required. Sooner or later this dark part would be needed though, and so it settled itself. It would find itself soon enough. Fulcra's eyes scanned the stone of the passage.  It had been a long time since he'd journeyed into the deep dark. The memory of the ceremony flashed before his eyes. The Shadow Thay around him, darkness swirling about his ankles as it came to claim him. He'd asked for the strength to look the devil in the face, for the strength to step through the shadows and reach home. And someone each decision had led here. Here he'd found a path to a future that left him unshackled. Perhaps with those ahead of him, trudging through the darkness. And all of it linked to the Soul Monger which held the last part of himself that would set him free. The "doo dee dooo dit" stumbled for a moment....the silence swirling into the gap....the shadows coming to claim what he knows.....but somehow his lips form the shapes, the sounds, "dip dip dippity dooo..."  and the deception manages to hold for a few more moments.  Moment to moment....step by step.  Damn but it was getting hot down here.

OOC: "foot after foot down the stairs, you see that this tunnel terminates" but if I got the description all wrong, consider it never being spoken.

Oblivious to the Fulcra's spiritual turmoils (or anyone else's for that matter - her personal life now did include mortal danger and heavy grievance, but there was nothing mystical in it, most of the time even nothing magical), Cimeri led others to that clearly altered by hands tunnels with minecart track on it. There was no need of light anymore - an orange glow from someunknown lightsource made it possible - and even thouse without drakvision could see tracks emerging from a tunnel entrance to the left, curving in front of of the group to head straight away into what might be a larger cavern area. There's also a cave tunnel on the right, though the track does not continue that way. 

Walking behind several members of their small company, Taman holds the glowing stone in his hand, his palm up and the small stone sitting there illuminating the tunnel as he walks along. The shadows cast by those directly in front of him stretch out, appearing like strange monsters as they disappear into the gloom ahead. His scale mail rattles and scrapes together as he moves, the mace at his hip, and the crossbow on his other side, slapping softly against his thighs with every step. He hears the sounds from behind, that tell him Fulcra is closely following him.
Taman can't help but wonder about the path that has brought him to this place and time... All of the decisions were thoughtfully considered, and fully analyzed though, so he would not be doubting his choices to this point. He had made the only choices he could make, and live with himself afterwards, so there was only moving forward. Even if forward meant traveling into a fire mountain, inhabited by fire creatures.

With an inward sigh, not wishing to show any sign of frustration or ill-at-ease, he sent his mind forward and touched that of his familiar.
'Anything happening up there?' He asked through their mental link.

'More tunnel.' The thoughts came back at once.

Taman did not dare enter the familiar's mind more fully, and see through its senses, as that would leave him blind and deaf to his own body. He knew Sabastian would inform him of any changes ahead though, so continued following along.

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