38 – The lost expedition
They moved cautiously through the tunnel, the dim light at the end growing closer and closer. Along the way, Elanil listened attentively to the surroundings, trying to catch the now-familiar rustling sounds in the darkness, a sign that spiders were lurking nearby. But only muffled sounds of their own steps answered her.
The closer they got to the tunnel’s exit, the more obvious it became that this light was different from the steady, indifferent greenish one emitted by bioluminescent mushrooms. It was something changing, sometimes increasing in intensity, sometimes fading. The light pulsed unevenly, like a heart with neglected arrhythmia. It also changed its color, from pure silver to shades of purple. Not very dramatically though, but still. There was no doubt that the source of this light was not mushrooms.
“What do you think that could be?” a voice whispered in the darkness. Not Nura’s.
“Gaspard!” Nura hissed. “Don’t scare me like that! How long have you been conscious?”
“Since you slammed my head against the wall while running.”
“Why didn’t you tell me right away?” Nura whispered indignantly. There was a dull sound, like a sack of potatoes being dropped. Elanil, who was walking ahead, turned around, the outlines of her friends barely visible in the dim light. Gaspard groaned as he rose from the floor, where Nura had unceremoniously tossed him. She loomed over him menacingly.
“You’ve nestled nicely, I see. For your information, I’m not an orc-mount.”
“Let’s consider this my moral compensation for your careless treatment during our merry runs through the tunnels.”
“Quiet,” Elanil shushed them. “Let’s find the source of that strange glow.”
“You know, usually in stories, when someone says, ‘Hey, there’s some weird stuff up ahead, let’s go check it out,’ it doesn’t end well,” Gaspard quietly giggled.
“Well said, handsome,” Nura quipped. “Now go back and clear the rubble, kill the spiders, if there are any left, and then call us. We’ll wait for you here for now.”
“With pleasure, but in case I don’t come back, tell me which one of you two molested me first. I’m dying to know who I should blame for my torn shirt.”
Elanil sighed wearily. “I’m so glad you’ve fully recovered, Gaspard. Now please shut up, both of you.”
She nodded to them and moved forward, alert.
What awaited them ahead couldn’t be immediately revealed, as it turned out they’d only seen reflected light. The tunnel made a final turn before emerging into a cave. In the corner of this turn sat a large, monolithic slab of glittering mineral. A mica vein, Elanil guessed. She already saw mica earlier, though of small size, not as a huge chunk. Step by step, they carefully passed the glittering wall, hoping that no lurking danger awaited them. But their short stay in this dungeon had already taught them to keep their weapons unsheathed.
When Elanil finally emerged from the tunnel into the open space, her amazement knew no bounds. She hadn’t expected to see such a vast cavern.
They found themselves on one of the protruding ledges of the cavern, which resembled a gigantic gorge. A little higher up, the walls converged into a single stone vault, like the ceiling of a Gothic cathedral. At the bottom of the crevice, a flat stone floor was visible, which, however, dropped even further down. It was impossible to discern what lay there from where the group stood. To see it, they would first have to descend to that platform and look over the edge.
It was completely at odds with Velesaar’s description of the cave’s fourth level. According to the map, after a short descent, they would have entered a network of adits where iron ore had previously been mined. Further on, another descent would have begun, leading them to deposits of dawnstone. There was no mention of any gigantic underground canyons. However, the presence of this cavity, unregistered on the map, was not what impressed them the most.
The most incredible thing about this cavern was its source of illumination. Enormous, branching veins ran through the stone, like blood vessels or the branches of a giant bush imprinted in the rock. These veins emitted the flickering glow that had lured the party, like moths. The vessels would sometimes turn pure white, then smoothly flow into a delicate turquoise, then darken to violet and then lighten again to a silvery hue. This play of colors and intensity in brightness were not subject to a single rhythm and occurred independently in different parts of this mysterious lode.
“I think I’ll speak for everyone,” Gaspard whispered. “What the hell is this?”
“No idea,” Elanil answered, also quietly.
“But it definitely doesn’t look like hell,” Nura noted. “It looks…” she paused, as if trying to find the right word. “…pure, I think.”
“Whether it’s pure or not, I don’t like it,” Gaspard grumbled. “Like it’s too big for us, if you know what I mean.”
“Why are you so nervous?” Nura sounded surprised. “There are no spiders here. There’s no one here at all. We’re in no danger.”
“Call it a hunch, but I’d prefer to choose another—oh shit! Look!”
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Elanil and Nura turned around.
Instead of the hole, through they emerged from the tunnel onto this ledge, there was nothing. It didn’t even look like the tunnel was blocked by a pile of debris. A monolithic stretch of wall, as if the passage had never existed.
“This is what I was talking about.” Gaspard gave the disappeared entrance a gloomy look. “This pure place is—”
A chain of notifications did not let him finish his thought.
Quest: Seal the Abyss
Status: Completed
Description: Success.
Reward:
+15000 XP
[Level Up] Elanil
Level: 10 → 18
32 Stat points gained.
[Level Up] Nura
Level: 9 → 17
32 Stat points gained.
[Level Up] Gaspard
Level: 16 → 21
20 Stat points gained.
[System Notification]
The quest Explore the well became Unavailable
[System Notification]
The quest Study the mushrooms in the Cucumber chamber became Unavailable
[System Notification]
The quest Gather the iron ore became Unavailable
[System Notification]
{Nura: New Skill acquired} Dream looter: low
Description: The dreamwalker can now loot her enemies’ very souls, sometimes retrieving what they could only dream of, but never physically possessed.
Quest: Scout the abandoned cave
Status: Updated
Description: The previous route became inaccessible. You must explore other ways to dawnstone deposits or find another source of the mineral.
Additional Information:
Threat Level: Moderate
Notable Traits: N/A
Reward:
Glorgkhon supply (conditional)
XP (conditional)
Loot (conditional)
“Err… What?” was the only comment on this Elanil could think of.
“Well said,” Nura agreed. “I am a dream looter now? What the hell does it mean? What was this quest Seal the Abyss? What Abyss? When did we even get it?”
“So many questions, so few answers,” Gaspard snorted. “But hey, we’ve got 15 kilo XP! How are you going to spend this pile of skill points? I bet we should invest more in luck. It seems that’s what we need most in this underground shithole. Though our archer-mage, I suppose, will continue with her unique versatile rounded build.” He winked at Elanil.
“Is that all what bothers you right now?” Nura exclaimed. “What about the quest card with success as its only description?”
“Of course it bothers me. That’s why I said I didn’t like this cavern in the first place. I’m afraid, it’s too big to fathom. Thus, I prefer to focus on what I can grasp, it calms the nerves a little.”
“Like what for example?”
“Like what the hell is the Cucumber chamber?”
“This is the cavern where the spiders attacked us,” Elanil explained. “It’s marked as the Cucumber chamber on the map.”
“Huh, I should’ve studied it more carefully.”
“Said the one who bragged about having a keen eye,” Nura remarked.
“I think that with my explosion in the Cucumber chamber I caused a much larger collapse that blocked access to the lower levels.” Elanil said fast, preventing them from another exchange of caustic remarks. “The one where the iron ore deposits were and another where the well led. And the one, probably, that led into this Abyss, whatever that means.”
“Sad,” Gaspard sighed. “Now, I won’t be able to sleep without finding out what kind of studies we were supposed to conduct with the mushrooms.”
“I’ve just had a thought, what if this Abyss is the cause of the last expedition’s disappearance? What if this is the very evil that settled in this dungeon?” Nura’s eyes widened in realization. “Wait a minute! What if the Abyss is somehow connected to the Chasm, and the undead that raised from their graves?”
Both Gaspard and Nura stared at Elanil, as if waiting for her to confirm or debunk this hypothesis, or at least to provide additional information.
“I don’t know,” she only said. She didn’t lie, she had no idea about the nature of the Abyss. She hadn’t even heard any of the narrative designers even hint at such a plot line.
“Great, Nura,” Gaspard grumbled. “You’ve added even more questions to our already large pile of problems.”
“Let’s take a look around,” Elanil suggested. “We need to find a way to get off this cliff. There’s no other way but down and further.”
The cliff was a long ledge, wide enough for two people to walk side by side without fear of falling down. There were no glowing veins in the rock on this side, so it was relatively dark. They didn’t dare turn on Gaspard’s [Illumination]. Its bright light would attract unwanted attention. Even if they couldn’t see anyone, who knew what could be in this underground canyon, invisible, but watching them. After all, they were still reeling from the tunnel entrance’s disappearance.
“Over here!” Gaspard was first to notice. There were some things lying in a small recess near the wall. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be the remains of a camp: odds and ends, scraps of torn clothing, and a miner’s bag. A journal lying near the bag caught their group’s attention. Perhaps it was the lost expedition’s logbook and it could contain valuable observations that would shed at least some light on what happened to the missing miners.
Elanil picked up the book.
[System Notification]
Item received: Lost expedition’s logbook.
Quest: The abandoned cave: missing in action
Status: Acquired
Description: Investigate what happened with the last mining expedition from Biwa and report the results to Velesaar or the miners’ relatives.
Reward:
+ 100 XP
+ 50 The Valley of Ringing Springs reputation (conditional)
“That’s exactly how I got that ill-fated quest with the sphere,” Gaspard noted. “By simply picking up something I shouldn’t have picked up.”
“I hope, there won’t be a miner in my head yelling at me,” Elanil smiled. “But it’s so dark in here, I can’t make out a single letter.”
“We still can light Gaspard’s [Illumination],” Nura suggested.
“I think I found a better solution,” Gaspard said, picking up an object lying slightly off to the side of the camp and not immediately noticeable.
Upon closer inspection, Elanil saw it was a lantern. Not one of those large lanterns the miners must have used while working in the adit, but rather a very small one, no larger than a small jar. These lanterns had two crystals touching each other inside the flask and casting light for a considerable period of time. It wasn’t very bright, but it was probably enough to read the miners’ last notes.
It turned out the lantern was still in working condition. Twisting the spring that drew the two crystals together, Elanil activated it. A dim, whitish light was barely enough to snatch a small spot on the rock from the darkness.
Elanil opened the logbook. The first few pages were illegible, looking like ink had been spilled on them. Further on, the notes became more readable. The miner who wrote them did not possess beautiful handwriting, though. The underline hopped, sometimes one line overlapping with the next. The person who wrote this seemed to be in great agitation.
“This was supposed to be a routine iron mining operation,” Elanil started reading aloud. “Berman asked us to replenish his smelter’s supplies. How could it possibly go wrong?”
