FreeHolds Adventure, Cycle 3 Part 8d
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Yesterday had been their forty-ninth day at Kaymere. Mokha wondered what was keeping Setta and the Arcanium expedition. Travelling with a large group across the freeholds was very time consuming and there were numerous reasons why they might be delayed, he was not overly concerned. He was getting impatient however, helping Tipper was taking longer than anyone had expected. Mokha missed Setta more than he thought he would and he really wanted to go to Janderton, hopeful that he would still be able to find Shak there.
Mokha returned to the camp after his patrol around the hill with Sefla. Calathy and Kolti were talking about recipes.
Calathy noticed their approach and waved, “The bleek stew isn’t ready yet. Do you mind waiting?”
Mokha shook his head no and sat in the dining room. There had been a number of improvements to the camp over the past eight-days, thanks mostly to Tipper making sure two or three people had half a day off every fourth day. Aside from the oven and stove built by Tal, the dinning room had been a priority for many of them. It now had three walls made of stacked stone from the ruins, a large, mostly intact door had been pulled from the depths of the collapsed castle and now served as a low table. Two tarps made a roof above the dining space while a third tarp could be extended over the cooking area if it was raining, or it could be used to mostly close off the fourth facing. During a particularly severe rain storm a few nights back most of them had taken shelter in the dinning room.
While Sefla was using the latrine, both Adwin and Tipper came into the camp. Mokha was surprised to see the two of them here at this time, he noted that their conversation had an edge of excitement.
“Good news,” Tipper announced loudly, “Though I’ve said it twice before, I’m now sure we’ve found the hall I’m looking for.”
Calathy smiled, “Well, that is good news by the sound of it. What makes you so sure, compared to previous claims?”
Tipper and Adwin moved into Mokha’s view and Tipper proffered an ornate looking bracelet for Calathy to inspect. “Oh, that’s beautiful, I’ve never seen the like.”
“Certainly Ellodran… Eldra crafted as they say.”
Adwin noticed Mokha, he smiled and sat down at the table, “Looks like we actually found the Deep Hall this time.”
“Anything beside that bracelet to indicate you actually found the right spot?” Tal asked.
“Yes!” Tipper said with enthusiasm, “The architecture is different, older, likely from the original structure build by the ancients.”
“Oh, okay, well that’s good.” Tal said, seemingly impressed.
Tipper asked, “Is lunch ready?”
“Pretty much, give me a moment, I’ll put some of this in the other pot for you guys. Tal, can you bundle up the flat bred?”
Tipper came into the dining room, “Mokha, I’m glad you’re here. After you’ve had a chance to eat do you think you’d be interested in taking a look around the area we’ve opened up? There are a lot of things laying around that may be magical. Ellodran artifacts, as best as I can tell.”
“Sure, I’m curious. Is there much debris down there?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Part of the hall collapsed, but there is a fairly open area, mostly clear. A number of people died down there with a lot of surprisingly intact items of different sorts.”
“Sounds promising.”
“Indeed.”
Calathy called over, “Food is ready.”
Tipper and Adwin left with the food for the others. In short order Calathy brought a bowl of stew and some flat bread over to Mokha, “Where did Sefla go?”
Mokha, with a mouthful of food that was too hot, pointed to the latrines. Calathy nodded and returned to the cooking area. When Sefla returned she collected her food and joined him. “Was Tipper down here?”
“Yes. She seems to think we’ve made it down to the area she was looking for. She wants me to go up and take a look after I eat.”
“Oh, that’s exciting. Can I come as well?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe wait until after I’ve taken a look around. It’s possible there is active magic down there or some of the artifacts could be dangerous. I’m sure we’ll all get a chance to see what treasures we’ve found.”
“It’s not as though we haven’t already pulled up a fortune, just in the various pieces of gold we’ve found, crushed or not. Gold is still gold.”
Mokha nodded his agreement and continued eating. Calathy joined them, she and Sefla made plans to do the afternoon patrol and spider-hunting walk together. Mokha finished his food, excused himself and walked up to the ruins.
Surprisingly, by the time he had reached the entry point they had been using, Lilly was the only one there. She was cleaning up after the meal and keeping an eye out for him. Everyone else had eaten quickly and returned to work, no doubt motivated by their recent discovery of the Deep Hall.
Lilly casually informed him, “The entry to the hall is not far from where we were working yesterday. Tipper is getting people to widen the passage, though she’s not letting anyone into the hall until you’ve taken a look.”
“You don’t seem too excited by the discovery.”
“Oh, I am. Though I figure it’ll be a couple of days before we can really do much work down there. Everything in its own time, as they say.”
He smiled and nodded, “Everything in its own time.”
Getting down to the Deep Hall was a matter of winding through the maze they had dug. He stopped at the light station, taking one of the small torches they had made in the previous eight-day.
There was only a little oil left for the lanterns, they were burning animal fat in some of lamps they had found in the ruins. Once he had his torch burning he proceeded further into the depths.
He came to an area where light trickled down through the jumbled ruins. Here some of the crew were bringing buckets, pots and sacks of small stones, dirt and miscellaneous debris from below. The containers were hooked to a rope then a couple of people, working from above, lifted everything up. When the rope came back down, the empty container was removed and a full one attached. He carefully made his way down past the line of people moving the containers upwards, passing them one to another. It reminded him of a bucket line for fighting fires.
Mokha came to the area they were clearing. He had to climb up onto a large chunk of flat stone before descending along the top of it. Carefully he moved past the others, ducked under another huge stone and came into the open area of the Deep Hall where Tipper and Adwin were looking into nooks and crannies along the edge of collapsed stone. Across the floor and in the nearby corner there were artifacts of various sorts, as well as the odd piece of bone. From somewhere within the rubble, or perhaps beyond it, there was the sound of dripping water.
“How’s it look?” Mokha asked.
“Seems to be the place we’re looking for.” Adwin said as he continued to inspect the rubble or whatever lay within it.
Tipper, likewise engaged, said, “The water is a pretty good indicator. According to the material I was looking at in GreensBridge there was an underground lake or reservoir accessible from the Deep Hall.”
Mokha walked around the clear area, there were many artifacts. “How much bigger is this hall?”
“Fairly large from what I understand. Aside from the cistern, there were baths, three massive fireplaces and enough space to entertain a hundred people.”
“Okay then. What we’re looking at here might be a tenth of the space?”
“Yeah, give or take.”
“Humph.” Mokha looked at the massive amount of stone that had filled most of the Deep Hall, “There’s no way we’re clearing all that out.”
Tipper shook her head, “Can you tell what things are magical?”
“Give me a bit, I’ve learned a new spell that should allow me to just look around and see what is magical. I’ve not used it much.” Mokha tapped his feet, he began to concentrate on the spell he had learned from the little silver book he had stolen from the Fingures. They had been robbed of most of the treasures they had taken, but Mokha had his two books and Adwin had the short sword. Given a few more months to study, Mokha hoped to learn a spell that would allow him to analyze the enchantments on an item.
He spoke the words while keeping a simple rhythm with his feet, slowly the way he viewed the world altered. The floor and the walls, as well as many of the items scattered across the open space began to glow with a faint light. It was all a bit overwhelming. He could even see things glowing from within the debris. He carefully moved to the edge of the collapsed rock, some of what he could see was well out of reach, but he carefully pulled a number of items from the edge. One of the items was a sphere of stone crystal, surprisingly intact, nearly the size of his fist.
He turned to the other two, smiling, “It looks like you’ve found the mother load, Tipper.” He wiped the grit and dust from the crystal, held it up while giving it some of his own energies. He spoke the Eldra work for light. It glowed brightly, “I can see many dozens of things that are enchanted, including the walls and floor, by the way.”
In the stark light of the orb he watched his two companions’ eyes widen, big smiles spread across their faces.
Adwin pointed to the orb, “That will be very useful, how did you light it?”
“Ide, Nox’s apprentice, showed me how to do it.”
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