Chazrael's words leave his throat, and a sudden rush of air flows backwards through the tunnels towards the Refinery. It rushes passed all of you before ending on Grahl's back, blowing over him much further into the darkness. 

The hunter raises an eyebrow to the ceiling, motioning around for everyone to be quiet. 

"I would heavily advise you not repeat that. Not in here." 

Onyx bit his tongue. Again, an admonition to not do something that sounded extremely interesting. This hunter was not making the trip easy for him.

Arbon, now once again with the rest of the party, turns to Chazrael after hearing his remark, "I'm no holy man, halfling. But that half-orc seems very much attached to Gruumsh," he looks back into the darkness where Grahl would be standing, "You'll want him on your side as much as the next. And as we delve deeper, you'd best stay on his good side and not dis-merit his beliefs."

A broad smile returns to Arbon's face as he turns and looks left and right, "Now then, left or right?" He scratches his chin a moment, before walking over to the cart and dropping it onto the rails and kicking it to start it rolling down the slope. He turns back to the group with an even broader smile, if that's even possible, and nods his head in the direction of the cart, "Distraction," and starts making his way to the right pathway.

"Evil is subjective, you know.  Some would argue that 'not caring for gods' is a form of evil in itself.  Me, I just try to make do."

Grahl stops for a moment at the gush of wind. It was to much of a coincidance for it to happen right after Chazrael blasfemous words. 

But wind is not something Gruumsh would do, he would simply strike down such creatures, make them feel his power and never doubt it again. Grahl looks back into the darkness of the tunnel from which they came. 

Then turns and continues walking with the group. Perhaps a creature of power lurked here, a foe of Gruumsh. Yes that must of been why Gruumsh would lead him here. Grahl would not of said a word but a smile appears on his face. To be trusted in carrying out his gods task was a great honor indeed, a feeling of excitement came over him as he started his steady pace again. 

Chazrael shakes his head. "I meant no disrespect to your god. I admire the ways of Gruumsh and his warriors do battle. As I said, to each their own." 

Arbon continues to walk down the shaft on the right, lit mace held high, treading carefully so as not to slip (half pace if need be for DM's clarification).

(( So... I take it the thread has been pretty much abandoned? ))

(OOC - not sure. Could just be weekends getting busy etc. Was waiting on next bit of info or instruction.)

((Personally ran into meatspace trouble but there isn't much for me to post about anyway.))

You follow the creature into the left hand tunnel, Grahl remaining in the shadows, the dark whsipers having gone.

From Grahl's perspective, their is once again silence throughout. It is broken only occasionally in the increasingly long time it seems to be taking for the group to explore what could only be a short passage way. The sound of a swinging metal cart waiting on a rail line end the intense noiselessness.

Left.

Right.

Then still once again.

Left. 

Right. 

...

In the passage, a door appears to be only a minute or two into the darkeness, the cart junction just out of sight. Opening the door, the hunter looks down and calls back,
"Stairs."

He looks frustrated, then admits,
"These were not here in any of my experiences or within any of my knowledge of this place."

He thumbs the hair on his chin,
"It can only lead back down to the mine shaft, but through a door we didn't see on the way up to the refinery. There could also be another room mid way, like a sentry/alarm post..."

He trails off...

"...but stairs leading all the way up would have to at least be a hundred feet high. That is not something you just forget either in person or on a map."  

(OOC - you said left passage, but did you mean right? Arbon had kicked the cart down the left passage and then went right.)

Arbon looks through the door and down the stairs, then turns to the hunter, "I'm not surprised, hunter," he looks back down the passage they came down, "Many mines are labyrinths under mountains. Surely it would take a lifetime to explore. Besides, the evil in this place perhaps plays with our reality for its pleasure."

"I'm not liking this," remarked Onyx bluntly, sounding a bit concerned. "We were trusting that you knew your way around the place, but apparently that's of less help than we understood. No offense to you, of course."

He shook his head, and mumbled, "Chalk... chalk... my kingdom for some chalk," before deciding to set down his torch again. Rummaging through his backpack as he knelt, he pulled out a hammer. He didn't have a chisel, but he did have a crowbar, which was strong enough to not break. Standing back up, he used the tools to chip away a noticeable "X" into the stone just right of the door. Satisfied with his handiwork, crude as it was, he placed his equipment back before grabbing his torch/staff and standing back up.

"Apparently, we need to keep track of where we've been," he explained to the one or two odd looks he got. "We probably should have been marking a trail of some sort from the very beginning, but... well, we'll have to do what we can for now."

Turning to the hunter, he grinned and continued, "So, we have stairs to descend, yes?"

Chazrael watches Onyx carve the X before turning to the hunter. "We have a marker. Let's continue." 

The hunter agrees and begins to walk down the flight of stairs, the metal groaning loudly down the spiral with an echo. He spits down the center, waiting for a splat that never came. Mentally exhausted by the endeavor, he shrugs his shoulders and continues walking. 

Arbon follows behind the hunter, light held high on his mace, squinting into the darkness below.

Following from behind Grahl but go down last. He waits at the top of the stairs a moment turning around in case they are being followed. 

(perception for seeing or hearing something behind the group 15)

If he notices something or not he will move down the stairs and determine his action there. Untill then he will steadily go down the stairs trying to stay focussed but kinda hoping battle is not far away. But more importantly he hopes they are not yet lost in these caves. 

Onyx also continues walking.

Halfway down the stairs, it is clear this is merely an access passage to the mine shaft. The twenty or so minutes it takes to careful decend the stairs are uneventful, and the hunters open a secret wall passageway that ends in a thin black cloth. Its fairly stiff, perhaps starched to rigidity by whoever done the laundry or perhaps its simply become stale. In either case, it folds roughly against itself revealing the open mine shaft with rail system on the bottom as when you first came to this lower section of the mountain. 

Back at the top of the stairs, Grahl sees you all leave into the mine shaft.  There is quiet some distance but several large light sources at the bottom of an extremely dark passageway are easy to spot. Once they leave, Grahl is made aware of a familiar dragging sound slithering about behind him in the direction of the hanging rails. 

As Grahl notices the dragging sound he does not respond with his body, but is delighted. A foe is following. 

However Grahl is wise enough to not try to fight the unknown on his own. He will move down the stairs to find the group, having noticed the lights have gone away or into another area. 

Walking down he makes sure he puts his attention on listening for this foe, to see if he hears it coming closer. Once Grahl reaches the others he will try to find a spot where they are not within view, the access passage should work just fine for this. He will quietly speak Grahl hear noise behind, creature follow. We make trap, kill creature.