The nature northwest of Decima seemed peaceful enough, but it didn't take a genius to notice that there might be more to it than one could see. The forests were mysterious, especially at night, and rocky hills stood here and there. Animals were hard to spot, except for some birds that flew over and between the trees. There were also some farms around, inhabited by wary farmers.

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Party Nº4P4 L01 – Gathering and briefingP4 L02 – Inn actionP4 L03 – Fights and dealsP4 L04 – Sewer and cellarP4 L05 – Night at the noble (!)P4 L06 – Down the drainP4 L07 – Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll

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Geeileq led the party northwest through the residential district, past the Orator plaza, through the docks and finally over the River Yath'al. There wasn't much of a road on the other side of the river, but there was a small path leading even further northwest into the forest. They walked on it for about two kilometers and the forest grew thinner. While they were walking, Geeileq explained where they were going and said that it wouldn't that long a walk. They'd also meet a few investigators at the mine, since the noble had wanted to keep at least an eye on it.
Geeileq spent some time flying around over the forest and then led them off the path, approximately to northeast. They soon noticed a new path, though it seemed rather unused. After about a kilometer, the forest grew thicker again and the landscape had become hillier, even a bit rocky.

---

They soon faced a rather prominent hill that seemed to have a lot of ledges, dents and clefts on it. There was a large hollow and at the end of it, the entrance to a supported cave. They could see some rail tracks leading into the cave, but the yard in front of the entrance was surprisingly clean. There were some strange dragging marks on the ground though.

"This is the place, right?", said Unah rhetorically, looking at the cave. She would have expected the people who had taken it to have placed at least a couple of guards outside, but there seemed to be no one. Still, there could be somebody hiding, she thought. (Spot)

Alexandro looked up at the cave, which he reckoned to be the entrance to the mine, and said what Unah had been thinking: "I don't see any investigators, and I don't see any Dah'kin. But the white lads being more comfortable underground, I think they lair deeper into the mine. They probably know the way roughly by now, so they've got that advantage. With that said, rushing in and simply forcing them out by brute force doesn't seem like an option to me. We'd better get in stealthy and try to make a stand when we find a location we can fortify."
He took out his gun, and started loading it. "Anybody got anything to add to that?"

Nal'unah didn't see anything in the surroundings, but there were enough hiding places that there could be plenty of people around them even now.

Unah doubted the stealth capacity of the party, but at least they could try that plan. "Okay", she just said. "By chance, did you bring a torch?", it occurred to her to ask Geeileq. She wondered how she hadn't thought of that before, but when she saw Alexandro standing there, she didn't need to think about it anymore. A shy smile curled her lips and she turned away, walking towards the entrance of the cave, still looking around, in case anyone was to jump out of some bush.

Walking warily but confidently, Geeileq also peered around the place, trying to see the scouts who were supposed to be there, or anything out of the ordinary. (Spot) He didn't feel particularly talkative, so at hearing Unah's question, he took the enchanted arrowhead out of his pocket and showed it to her without even looking her way.

Unfortunately Geeileq saw nothing either, the place seemed deserted at a quick glance.

Leon stayed silent, the wind wisping around his cloak lightly, he walked to the opening of the cave, carefully squinting and looking as far in as he could, trying to see any form of movement that he could (Spot). He then reached into his cloak and pulled out one of his rapiers, and began poking around the cave enterence, looking for any signs of people who had recently passed.

Seeing Leon wander around the entrance of the cave a bit made Alexandro chuckle slightly. Obviously, Leon had no way of looking deep into the cave, so he was probably just messing around a bit. Alexandro made his way to the entrance as well, keeping to the side. Knowing his enchanted necklace enabled him to see in the dark, he peered around the corner, gun at the ready albeit outside of view, to scout for trouble. (Spot / Listen)

Neither Leon nor Alexandro saw anything in the cave, Leon mostly because it was so dark, but Alexandro was quite sure the entrance was empty as well. They didn't have much time to confirm their sightings, though, because suddenly someone bounced up from some bushes in C10. It was an agitated Ravillan, dressed in camouflage style and holding a bow but wasn't aiming it at the group. Sounding a bit worried, he said: "Wait, wait! Are you... um, who are you?"

Alexandro raised his gun when he turned around, but quickly lowered it when he saw the man didn't seem very agressive, especially not after he spoke up. He left the entrance for what it was, quite sure nobody was near, and spoke to the man: "Greetings! We are here to investigate this mine. We hear it has been visited by unwelcome guests. Are you our rendez-vous?"

"Nice", Unah said to Gee about the glowing arrowhead, while she neared to the entrance of the cave with the rest of the party. The appearance of a guy coming from the bushes startled her, and she payed a quick glance to the man before deciding, too, that he didn't seem to be a danger, so she waited to hear what he had to say.

The Ravillan eyed the party and especially Geeileq, what with him being easily recognizable because of the wings. "Uh, yeah." He glanced back and another person walked out of hiding, this one Rysallean and noticeably better camouflaged. The Ravillan continued: "We um... we've been watching the entrance... sometimes some things come out. They look really scary and weird. They um... the last time we checked the entrance, they grabbed one of us, Lavia. There were three of us, you know. We'd have had no chance against them so we two ran but... um. Eh, I'm Tutus Frivol, by the way." He wasn't sure whether to offer his hand to shake or not, so he just stood nervously. The Rysallean just stayed back, looking pale and emotionless.

Scrunching his eyebrows into a furrow, Leon looked at the loose-tongued Ravillan, "Boy, it looks like someone slipped some wine into your waterskin...Anyway, what did these things that grabbed your friend look like?" He said, slowly sliding his epee under the cloak, and by the thin, metallic whistle, clearly back into its sheath.

"...Wine? Uhh, I could really use some..." He tried to look a little less nervous but pretty much failed. "They were kind of... um, shrouded, but I guess they looked humanoid. I think they were Dah'kin... but kind of green?" He eyed each of the group members a little and went: "Um, what are your names? You were Gee-something, right, and Lor'kyn, but what about the rest of you?" He pointed at Geeileq and Lor'kyn respectively, and then looked at Leon, since he had spoken the last.

Geeileq almost growled and shouted: "GEH-ee-leq, moron!" He spent a moment staring angrily at the Ravillan and then spoke more: "When did ya losers lose that third buddy of yers?"

Leon let a light chuckle at the pesky Ravillian, "Name's Leon. Now, maybe we should go before this friend of yours ends up on an altar with their organs laying next to them."

"Ye Gods! You people aren't exactly helping!" Alexandro spoke out against Geeileq and Leon. Shaking his head, he turned to the two scouts again. Trying to comfort them, he said: "Alright, calm down. We're here now, and we'll take over. You two should just make sure you're safe. Perhaps even go back to Decima. We'll take care of this, and we'll find your companion. I, Alexandro Miuchi, will take care of that! We'll bring her back to Decima. Now, is there anything else you remember about these Dah'kin? Anything might be important."

"Kind of green?", said Unah. "What do you mean by that? Green like me?" she asked, suddenly an uncomfortable feeling raising inside her. Dah'kin and Terrans were nothing alike, but who knew if this clumsy people confused both. She agreed with everyone that the best was for them to leave and let them handle it, because if they stayed, they would probably just make things harder.

Tutus flinched at Geeileq's shouting and mumbled: "It was just last night... after we were done checking this spot." He seemed to get even more upset after Leon was done and plopped down on the ground. However, after Alexandro's convincing speech which he just wanted to unconditionally believe, he got up and answered him and Nal'unah: "Um... they were kind of pale green, I think. I didn't really look too closely, we just ran. They didn't look like normal Dah'kin at least..."
Surprisingly, the other scout spoke as well, very shortly and emotionlessly: "We'll keep camp while you're in there. That's what we're supposed to do."

"Okay, then. But you better stay hidden", said Unah to the frightened men, the issue of the green Dah'kin still on her mind. It was certainly odd. "Now, how are we going to do this? Tunnels in the mine are narrow. It will be a problem if we have to fight someone", she said, and walked a couple of steps nearer the entrance.

"As much of a problem to them as it is to us, save for the fact they can all see in darkness, and most of us can't." Alexandro said. "We'd better keep quiet and on our guard, stay prepared for close-range battles."
Alexandro wasn't really liking that, as his gun would lose one of it's advantages. But then again, putting a bullet in somebody's face from 3 yards away was just as painful as 50. He also wasn't very sure about these green Dah'kin. What could they expect from these enemies?
"Let's go then. People who can't see properly in the darkness should stay in the middle of the group, and somebody with good recon skills on the front and back-end. I volunteer for the front-end job, which one of you is going to be the last?"

Tutus mumbled: "Um, we'll keep watching the place... our camp in about a hundred meters that way." He pointed behind him, quite clearly right from the cave entrance. Having said that, the two scouts walked off and disappeared behind the bushes.

Geeileq quickly stated: "I can be the last." He took the glowing arrowhead and strapped it to his left hand. Having done that, he grabbed his cho-ko-nu and loaded it. He pointed at the dark tunnel with the weapon and said: "After you."

Leon stood back, leaning against a tree. His head tilted downwards, his hat covering his face again."I'll go in after Alexandro, I can't do much if I'm too far from the action," he said, never lifting his head to reveal his face, "Though maybe we could come up with something for makeshift torches. We won't be able to see very well with 1 torch clear in the back of the group. And actually, why don't I take lead from you, Alex'. It seems you favor that gun a bit, and it'll give you a little more range to use it from."

Unah shook her head. "Alexandro is the only one of us who can see in the dark, if I understood right. Maybe he can scout ahead while we remain in the back. As long as no one sees him, he could come back to warn us and we could plan something on the way", she said and sighed. She wasn't confident at all in her own stealth abilities, and carrying a light wouldn't make them invisible. "Just let's get going, we're wasting time", she said, eager to hit some stuff, and approached the entrance of the cave, waiting for whoever was going to go first to do so.

Alexandro agreed with Unah. "The lot of you can't see in the dark, and I can. And with the whole gun issue, I can't fire if you're in front of me prancing about with your blade. Wouldn't want to blast your skull away and all that. So, as Unah said, I'll scout ahead a few metres, and tell you if the coast is clear. I would have liked to not use any torches at all, but that would hamper your movement a lot. Birdy's arrowhead seems subtle enough, though. At least it can be covered quickly, might that be needed. The rest of you should either be content with that lightsource or think of something else. I don't have any torches on me."
He checked his gear one last time, saw to it that his potions were hanging at the ready from his belt, and then stepped into the cave. He kept an open eye for booby traps, not expecting an enemy encounter just yet, but fearing they might have rigged the cave entrance after discovering the scouts. (Spot/Search)

Alexandro looked around the entrance and saw and found nothing of interest, save for some obvious tracks of battle and dragging as well as some wood debris, probably a bit of the remains of a crate. There was even a little blood on the ground.

Alexandro signaled that the cave seemed safe, and proceeded into the entrance. Continuously scanning the surrounding area, he walked slowly, but as he didn't think there would be much trouble yet, he didn't keep the pace too low.

Using his agility and general swiftness, Leon darted his way in right behind Alexandro. There was no way he wanted to be left too far from the front, and so he figured he'd earn the spot in an impromptu foot race. After safely reaching the dark gloom of the cave, He moved in closer to the cave walls, in an attempt to hide himself from whatever may be in the cave as he moved along with the group, as long as he couldn't see them, they may as well not be able to see him. (hide)

After Leon had entered the mine, Unah decided to follow. Carrying her voulge into the darkness, she walked slowly as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light.

Alexandro heard an ominous click under his foot as soon as he was a few steps into the cave. Even though it was dark, he was quick enough to react to the arrow that flew at him from a wall opposite to him, but only barely, as the arrow pierced his hat! He could hear the trap reloading to fire again.

"Click...click...boom," Leon said in an ominous undertone, nearing a whisper of a voice. He was still trailing just a few steps behind Alexandro, and he quickly released from the edge of the wall, "This sounds like a beautiful thing for me. They have this place trapped. Don't know about the rest of you, but I vote for disabling this thing as fast as possible before one of you turn out to look like a fine aged piece of cheese, filled with arrow holes and all," He began digging around in his cloak for the handy lockpicking tools he always carried on him and pulled them out despite the dark. "Can someone get me that light up here?"

"That was a close one." Alexandro whispered, grinning. "God thing I was being a bit caref... heck! It ruined my hat!" His eyes seemed to harden, and his mouth became a thin line instead of his usual grin. "I am now very angry."
He watched Leon take out his lockpicks, and then reacted slightly surprised: "Ow wow, next to babbling and trying to look mysterious you actually have real skills? I am impressed, please, give the man a light."
Using sarcasm wasn't something he did often, but the arrow-in-hat incident had made him a bit angry indeed. Nevertheless, while he was taking of his hat to pull out the arrow, he kept watching Leon to see how the man would disarm the trap.

Shoot a quick glare in the general direction of Alexandro and jutting one of the long lockpicks at him before returning it, Leon waited for the light to catch up to where he was, roughly in the area of the trap. He gave a quick glance around, in attempts to locate just where the arrow had been fired from.

Unah heard the conversation of the men in front of her, but saw them just barely. "Hey, Gee, come with that glowing thing here already", she said turning her head to the entrance of the mine where Geeileq was. She flattened against the wall to allow the hauken to walk over to where Alexandro and Leon were.

Geeileq, totally not happy about Nal'Unah calling him "Gee", moved closer with his arrowhead of light, and stopped right where Unah was, taking up the rest of the space with his wings, though since the tunnel was wide and his wings not that substantial, it wasn't much of a blockade.

Since Alexandro didn't move as the trap finished reloading, he got another arrow shot at him, and even though he was vaguely prepared, he was hit and took 6 damage! Now he and Leon saw rather clearly the spot where the arrow had come from. It came from a small eye-leveled slot in the left corner of the entrance room and the corridor that led deeper.

"Crap, Alexandro get the heck out of there", said Unah stretching a hand to grab the man's arm and pulled him to her. Now Leon better managed to disarm the trap. "Quite prepared, these mining fellows. I wonder how many of these they put around", she said, hoping it wasn't too many.

Seeing the trap, Leon went forward to the eyehole in the wall, "Alexandro, you need to move off the trigger now, before it loads another arrow so I can disable this without getting shot at," and with that, Leon went to work picking around in the trap, trying to find a way of disabling the trap.

"Oof!" was all that came out of the Ravillan as he got hit. Alexandro took a step back as Unah pulled him, and pulled the arrow out of his arm, gritting his teeth in pain. "Hells! Wretched contraption!"
He threw the arrow on the stone floor, and held his hand to his arm for a while, bending a bit forward in pain. Then he straightened himself, and even got a small smile on his face. "Well, didn't hit the hat this time, I guess. So that's a good thing. Thanks for the hand, love." He flashed Unah a quick but sincere smile, before taking a look at his arm again. "Hmm... It's not pretty, but I'll live, I reckon. What I'm wondering is whether there's an off switch to these traps? The miners must have been able to pass through safely, and the Dah'kin haven't been around long enough to rig the place."
In accordance to his words, Alexandro started to search for something which might function as an on//off switch, on this side of the trap. (Search)

Leon noticed that the loading mechanism behind the arrowhole had been somehow sealed inside the wall. They would need actually dig or break the stony wall to get access to it.

Alexandro, then again, failed to even find the trigger on which he had stood, much less a switch of any kind. To him, the approximate spot looked just like the rest of the floor.

"Are ya done with it yet, or will we finally just step over the trigger an' move?" asked Geeileq impatiently, waving his light around so that every corner of the place was illuminated.

Wrapping his tools back up in the cloth he carried them in, Leon stuck them back in his cloak where he kept them, "alright, let's go on, but be careful. As soon as you hear a click, get out of the way."

"So we're just stepping over the traps and hope not to get hit by them?" said Unah. So much for the stealthiness, she thought. "Oh well, whatever", she commented. "Do you want to go first?" she asked the skinny Geeileq with a mocking grin, as he seemed eager to move fowards.

"No." Geeileq sounded stern and levelheaded and continued: "Meat shields first, please." He pointed toward the dark tunnel with his crossbow.

Unah just chuckled, not bothered about being called a 'meat shield'. "Well, so be it", she said and moved fast into the tunnel (to M49) hoping to avoid the arrow-shooting trap on the way.

Unah successfully avoided the trigger, but right after that she stepped on another trigger and a bolt flew right at her, dealing 3 damage!

"Ouch" said Unah as she was hit by a bolt. She kept walking, as to move away from the trigger she had just stepped on. "This is not going to work, we should get a shield or something if we'll be walking blindly over traps", she said to the group in the back. Adjusting her eyes to the dark, she tried to see what was around her. (Spot)

Unah made it to the end of the corridor without triggering another trap. Once there, she promptly noticed a bat that screeched fairly quietly and started flying deeper into the mine. Other than that, there were rails and even a few wagons, but they were broken or at the least turned over.

Unah wished she could see in the dark, as she thought they would be stuck in this place for a while now. Since there seemed to be no enemies here, she approached the wagons that were turned over, looking for one that didn't seem too damaged, and tried to turn it around.

Alexandro crossed his fingers and followed in Unah's footsteps, hoping he could make it to the other end of the room as well, keeping his eyes open for traps and arrows, and his ears open for suspicious clicking sounds.

Hearing Alexandro walk off, Leon brought his tounge to the roof of his mouth, and made a loud clicking noise with it. A smile simply drew over his face even before seeing Alexandro's reaction. He shook his head and followed after Alexandro's footsteps, trying, now, to actually be as quiet as possible.

Unah found an undamaged wagon lying upside down, and after she had turned it upright again, it certainly looked like it was usable once they got it on the tracks again.

Walking after Unah, Alexandro and Leon made it through without triggering the trap again.

Geeileq, not too keen on walking in the first place, went a few steps toward the entrance, ran to gather speed and then jumped, with the help of his wings, over the approximate area where the triggers could have been. "See anything down there?" He asked the three others, waving the light in the tunnels.

Unah smirked at Geeileq's show off. "Nice", she just commented, before answering the hauken's question. "I found a usable wagon, but I don't think we all fit in here", she said looking at Alexandro and Leon who had just arrived, unharmed. She stretched her arms a bit before attempting to put the wagon on the tracks. "I could use some help, you know", she said.

Without a word, Leon untucked his hands from under his wrapped cloak and went over to Unah, taking another corner of the wagon, preparing to move it.

Leon and Unah managed to turn the wagon without much trouble. Four people would fit in there if they squeezed in, but only two could occupy it relatively comfortably. The wagon was meant for transporting stuff and had no means of steering, and only a rudimentary brake.

Alexandro suspiciously eyed the cart. Then he stood up straight, and grinned. "Ha! Imagine that! Racing through some dark tunnels in a mining wagon. How utterly suicidal! But what a keen sense of drama! I think I like it."
He took Wolfgang of his shoulder, and said to the bird: "Alright, Wolfy. It seems this will be quite too dangerous for you. You flutter back out now, and take care of yourself until I get out."
Wolfgang gave a soft cow, pecked Alexandro's arm a bit, and then took wing and flew out towards the exit.
Alexandro watched the bird leave the cave, and then turned to face the group. "So, we either split up, or we stick together. I suggest we don't split up unless each group either has some light, or is able to take care of themselves in the darkness. Birdy, you got the card. Where do these tracks lead to?"

"Down an' deeper into the mine. Kind of obvious, isn't it?" said Geeileq and walked around the large wagon "burial ground" with the map, waving the glowing arrowhead around. "Do ya want to go on a suicide ride in that thing? Does it even have a braking mechanism?" He then stopped and looked down the corridor that led to the right on the map. "Great, a collapsed corridor. Just what we needed..."

About eight meters into the corridor was a collapsed area. The rest of the corridor seemed to be in good shape, so the collapse was probably intentional.

"Sheesh, I don't know, I thought we could move faster and perhaps not get hit by traps on this thing", said Unah. "But if you want to walk, then walk", she added. "We don't know where they're hiding anyway", she said.

Keeping with his usual quiet reserve, Leon reached into the cart that he and Unah had just flipped, and grabbed the handle for the brake. Pulling on the brake release, he checked to see if Geeileq had an actual point about the weak brakes.

Leon saw that the brake worked more or less. Its effectiveness in slowing movement had yet to be discovered, but the mechanism didn't look that bad to him, at least.

"Looks like it works", said Unah, watching Leon testing the brakes. "So, then. Should we let the cart go alone, climb on it, or just forget about it?"

Messing with his hat, Leon scratched his brow, "It seems that the brake works...I see nothing wrong with jumping in and rolling out, but we may want to find another working cart...I can't see this one fitting all of us," he said, his hands, for the most part, remaining posted on the edge of the cart as he spoke in a calm, but somewhat hesitant tone.

Alexandro looked at the carts thoughtfully, absently rubbing his painful wound. "If it's not too much trouble," he mumbled, "we could take it along as mobile cover. We'd be less of a sitting duck, but we won't be all that quiet, I think. Then again, I don't think the sneaking around would work all that swell anyway, seeing the lot of you is blind in here without some lightsource."
Alexandro got behind the cart, and tried pushing it forward to see how much effort it took him. However, he made sure it wouldn't launch itself down into the mine, and would use the brake at the first sign of this.

The cart moved along the rails just fine. It could've been in better condition, but they were quite sure it was still quite far from breaking, and would most likely protect them if they used it as cover.

"Now, that's a sensible suggestion," said Geeileq to Alexandro's idea. He still peered around, glaring at the collapsed tunnel, more nervously than before. He was of course afraid of any tunnel collapsing and getting stuck in the mine. He started looking at the ceiling then, trying to figure out if there was a way to tell whether the tunnel would be collapsing or not.

"Let's go then. No use hanging around here much longer." Alexandro said, and put his shoulders to the cart to get it moving, although he made sure not to push it too much, for fear of it gaining too much momentum. "Unah, you're quite strong, please help me push? And Leon, keep an eye on the break."

Unah, who had been falling asleep with the wait, was happy to get moving. "Sure", she said to Alexandro and stood besides him, placing her hands against the cart. "Let's find some dah'kin miners", she said and pushed to get the thing moving.

Geeileq decided to walk behind the others and wave his light source around in the air to illuminate their way.

It wasn't hard to push the cart along the rails, mostly because the rails were obviously tilted deeper into the mine—they would need to hold the cart back a little if they didn't want it to roll away into the darkness.

The first turn to the left looked like it should: it was blocked by a collapse. Also the next turn into the small tunnel on the right looked fine. However, when they reached the second turn to the left, they were faced with a large collapse in Q23 and R23 that completely blocked the rails, visibility and overall access deeper into the mine!

Unah stopped pushing the cart when they reached the collapsed area. "That was a short trip", she said, sad about the fact that they couldn't use the cart anymore. "Well, now what? Geeileq, you've the map, what small tunnel should we take?" she asked.

Geeileq shivered at seeing yet another collapse and grimaced. He looked at the map and said: "The last tunnel on our right didn't look collapsed as far as I saw, an' should lead further down. Assuming the dah'kins are there! I'd be surprised if they hadn't blocked all the entrances, the way this looks."

Leon stood back from the cart, after they were unable to use it any more. He crossed his arms against his chest and stood back in quiet contemplation of what to do next.

"Can't have blocked them all." Alexandro said. "Don't know about the green dah'kin, but their captive sure can't go through solid rock. And seeing we haven't found his dead body yet, I guess there's a way down somewhere."
Alexandro made his way back to the turn which seemed passable, and tried to take a good look to see if it looked okay. (Spot)

Geeileq went behind Alexandro and poked his light source into the narrow corridor so he could see better. He shook his head at the thought of having to go into a corridor that narrow.

Alexandro saw to the end of the corridor and both of the turns seemed to be like they should.

"They seem fine to me. Let's go." Alexandro said, and he boldly went into the corridor.

Unah eyed the corridor and took a deep breath before following Alexandro into it. Though she wasn't as uncomfortable as Gee about being underground, the narrowness of the corridor made her only hope she wouldn't get stuck in it or something of the sort.

Even with the collapsed cave, Leon wasn't too reserved over the situation, "Well, if we want to get this done, it's best we go on and try to save the scouts from these mean, green Dah'kin."

"I'll just wait until you're sure that tunnel goes through," said Geeileq and stayed put with his light.

Alexandro reached the first branch where the tunnel continued straight into a dead end like in the map and another to the right.

Alexandro looked back for only a moment, primarily to give Leon a weird look for his little joke, even though the thief couldn't see that. However, he was also relieved to find Unah behind him. Softly, he spoke: "The tunnel ahead's a dead end, we're going right."
Again, he checked to see if the tunnel was safe before moving on. (Spot)

Unah frowned a little at the mention of the green Dah'kin, still wondering what all that was about. "Okay, right it is then", she answered Alexandro. She couldn't really see much ahead in the darkness, so she could only trust what he said. Unah looked back for a second. "Tell that hauken to stop being a baby and come", she said to Leon, and continued to walk after Alexandro.

Leon smiled when he was told to tell the Hauken to quit being a baby. He pulled one of his epees from its sheath and stuck the tip out of his cloak, "C'mon Ge...Geel...Eh, forget, come on, Hauken. There's only four of us here and we need all the help we can get."

"So scared without me, are you?" caviled Geeileq. "Tell me how that next tunnel looks an' I'll come if it's good."

Even Alexandro had trouble seeing now, since Geeileq's light didn't reach the next tunnel. Like on the map, the right tunnel went to a dead end and on the left now, the longer tunnel led to darkness. Alexandro couldn't quite see to the end of it.

"There's another dead end on the right, and a long cosy one on the left. Seems homely to me, let's go." Alexandro spoke softly, making his way into the left tunnel. "And I could do with some more light. Darkvision only goes so far you know."

To Alexandro's annoyance, he could see the end of the tunnel after a few steps, only to notice that it was blocked too. The block looked rather smooth, but it was hard to say with so little light.

"Huh, that's weird." Alexandro said. "It's blocked, but it doesn't look like a cave-in."
He wondered if the miners had simply ceased to dig the tunnel, but he couldn't see why. "Leon, grab a light and check out this tunnel. You're better at that stuff than I am. See what's up with that sudden end."

"Alright...Uh...Hauken, can I borrow that arrow real quick," Leon said, stretching his arm out to try to grab the light, as he still began looking at the wall.

Geeileq faced a rather ugly choice—for him, at least. He didn't want to refuse, but giving up his light source or going into the tiny tunnel weren't good options either. He decided that it'd be safer to stay there, so he deattached the glowing arrowhead from his bracer and gave it to Leon. "Try not to break it."

Carefully taking the arrowhead into his palm, Leon tried to squeeze past Geeileq to approach the wall.

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[Veltzeh] (GM) – Geeileq Machaiktev
[Sturmi] – Nal'unah Obaraan
[Blood Raven] – Alexandro Miuchi
[raikou] – Cassith Hir'edaik
[Sunny Silverunicorn] – Lor'kyn Osphy
[Lepellier] – Leon Marcel

The previous versions of this party can be seen at Party Nº4 970 and Party Nº4 693.
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