Into The Fissure

When the argument between Winnacer and Aithne finally ends, Porter offers up an idea:

"Sorry I didn't bring this up before, but I just thought of it."

He reaches into his belt pouch and pulls forth a small black onyx figurine of a war dog, saying:

"This is Booker. Booker can see in the dark for almost one hundred feet, he can often spot little bastards lying in wait, and he's even seen invisible creatures before. He's also a hell of a tracker, and he speaks Bohavian. I'm thinking we should put him and Aithne up front because Winnacer would make a good amount of noise in his plate. Hopefully Booker can lead us through the tunnel by following the scent of the rat bastards, while at the same time keeping an eye out for danger better than any of us could. I'm hoping he'll see the guards before they see him, and then we can best figure out how to deal with them then. Oh, and I can only use Booker for about a quarter of a day, and then I can't use him again for a week."

"What do you all say?"

Aithne smiles at Porter:

"I like that idea a lot. It makes me feel much better about taking the lead."

Winnacer sighs. It is very obvious that he has had enough of the debate now and feels that it is time to just get on with the matter:

"Very well," Winnacer grumbles. "So that's Porter's dog in the lead, followed by Aithne, Rowan, Yaz, Timex, Joy, myself and then Porter bringing up the rear."

Aithne nods.

Porter shrugs:

"Yeah, the order's fine, but I just want to go on the record as saying this is a bad idea. It doesn't sound like this group of rat bastards is involved with those Nemotz guys, and it sounds like there is a shitload of them. We may be biting off more than we can chew."

Winnacer shakes his head:

"Lord Skritchit is part of this conspiracy. He will have some knowledge of what is happening in Opava. Otherwise, finding the Disease Priests will be like finding a needle in a haystack."

"I think it's about time that I gave you all details of the only clue that we have to go on, and that's a letter which should have been sent by the High Priests of the Nemotz Temple that we cleared."

He reaches into his pack and produces a piece of parchment, which he then begins to read from:

"Dear Lord Skritchit," the LawBringer starts, "I am delighted to report to you that the results of our joint ventures continue to bear bounteous fruit, as we have been able to accomplish much over the past few months."

"Firstly, I would like to once again thank you for your continued assistance with our plans. The labor that you were kind enough to provide for us are as diligent in their work and obedient to His orders as they are mine. The substances and materials that you were willing to provide to us have also made all of the difference to our experiments and He and I have been delighted at the progress we have been able to make in this time. The diseases that our researchers have been able to concoct have surpassed even Our greatest expectations in terms of their virulence, contagiousness and deadliness. Once you have successfully completed your current agenda, then I would very much like to invite you here once more in order to show you the latest advances in our research."

"However, I understand that this is of secondary importance to you and you are eager to discover word as to whether we have been able to keep our part of the agreement. As I assured you, despite your hesitations, we have indeed been successful in our actions and are able to deliver all that we promised you."

"It is with great delight that I am able to inform you that we have now been able to perfect the formula for the disease XD-347, more commonly known by us both as the 'zombie slave plague'. I am happy to report that the earlier problems with the liquid's telltale odor and color have now been solved to ensure that the liquid is now completely undetectable by anything other than magickal means. In addition, we have been able to make two other improvements to the formula. The first is that we have increased the virulence of the liquid so that results are complete within seven days' time, and the second is that we have been able to enhance it so that anyone applying the infected liquid to the skin will be effected. Thus, those not drinking infected water can be infected by simply using the waters to bathe in. Knowing the drunken stunted mutants' love of ale, we thought this to be an important feature."

"Sir, together the results of the research by Your and Our staff, we have been able to develop the deadliest waterborne virus ever seen in this realm," Winnacer adds.

"As it took us longer than we expected to perfect the formula we have gone ahead with the next step of our agreement," the young Lord continues to read. "On 4 December, members of my staff set off for the city, taking all our production of the virus with them. This should give them more than a week inside the city in order to infiltrate the place thoroughly and locate all the sources of water supply within the city. As promised, they will then start to poison all of the wells on St Vaclav's Day, when the city will be enjoying the festivities and their guard will be relaxed. With the onset time of seven days, the city's populace should be completely at your mercy when your gallant servants break through into the city as the clock heralds the dawning of a new year - the year that will see Nemotz restored to His Rightful Place in the realm as the city becomes the first of many to belong to Him."

"As always, I remain your obedient servant, Yours Truly, High Priest Zdenyek Spalek."

Winnacer pauses for a moment as he folds up the piece of parchment and places it back in his backpack, and then he continues:

"This is where we have to go. But let's hope that with some careful planning and forethought we can prevent this delve from becoming a disaster."

Porter looks a bit confused:

"Is this Lord Skritchit one of these rat bastards or is he human? Also, it sounds like you may want information from him, in which case I may be able to take him alive."

"It sounds like he's one of the rat bastards," Winnacer replies. "Alive would, of course, be preferable, but these things tend to get complicated."

Porter nods his head:

"We've wasted enough time as it is, let's just start this thing."

With that, he heads over to the opening of the fissure. At the opening, Porter takes the black onyx statue out his pouch again. Throwing the statue to the ground, he simultaneously says:

"Booker T! There ya be!"

The statue changes instantly into a large Rottweiler. It appears to be no ordinary Rottweiler, however, as Booker T has long fur around his muzzle, and long fur towards the bottom of his legs, giving him the impression of wearing flares.

Booker looks up at Porter and grins:

"Yo, Porter, my main man! What's happenin', bro? Gimme some paw."

With that, Booker lifts his paw and Porter slaps it.

Shaking its head, the dog then turns to Porter and says:

"Yo man, it's cold! You couldn't have woken me up inside?"

Porter shrugs:

"Hey, if you would last longer than six hours at a time, maybe I'd give ya some free time."

Booker growls a little at this:

"Yo, chill out, bro. Don't be dissin' me like that, dude. You've got the meanest mutha of a dog as a homey, so six hours should be plenty good enough for you, punk."

"Hungry?" Porter asks, pulls out a large piece of beef jerky, tossing it to the dog.

"Mmmm mmmm," Booker says taking his first bite from the meat. "That jerky is mahty fine."

As the dog eats, Porter says:

"Look, I got a situation here."

Porter goes on to quickly explain the fissure and their plan to enter it. Finishing, he says:

"Now you're gonna be up front, don't complain. Aithne here is going to go with you. She can see in the dark, but not as well as you. Like I said, keep your eyes peeled for ANYTHING - stuff on the ceiling, floors that eat you, even some big eyeball. Try to follow the rat bastards scent back to their lair. But we want to try to surprise 'em, so stop as soon as you spot the guards. Got it? Good. Let's go."

"Ah dig ya, bro," Booker replies. "Don't ya be worryin' 'bout no thang now. Yo' Booker gonna work it out."

As they get ready to head, Porter adds to Booker:

"Oh, and if we run into one of these rust monster things, I'm counting on you to take 'em out."

"Jus' chill, bro'," Booker reassures him. "That cat's ass is mine."

With that, Booker heads off into the fissure. Aithne waits until Booker has gone some 50' into the tunnel and then she follows after him, with Rowan following right behind her, putting a hand upon her shoulder so as to guide him into the impenetrable darkness of the tunnel. The rest of the party follows on in formation behind, with Porter bringing up the rear.

Booker calls out after going just a short distance into the cave:

"Yo, ma man, Porter, I can't smell nuthin'. You sure them ratcat's bin here in the past ten hours? If they bin here longer ago than that, then ma sense o' smell ain't worth sheeet."

"It was probably longer than ten hours," Aithne replies to the dog, "but the ratman said that there are signs in the rock at every junction pointing the right way down to their lair."

"I got ya, sistuh," Booker growls in reply. "Jus' be tellin' me where to be goin' an' I'm there."

The party continues to walk through the tunnel. The tunnel begins to descend almost immediately, curving down to the south as it continues. The mouth of the fissure had contained some snow that had drifted in from the hill outside, but that soon disappears. The tunnel, however, is both damp and cold as well as being as narrow as they had feared. After a few hundred yards, the roof of the fissure is now no longer high enough for everyone to walk upright, being no higher than 5' from the floor, meaning that everyone but for Timex has to stoop a little in order to avoid bumping their heads on the ceiling. The fissure is narrow too, scarcely wide enough to walk normally, meaning that Timex and Winnacer keep bashing the sides of the tunnel with their armor.

Timex seems to be the one person who doesn't seem to mind the walk so much. Not only is his diminutive stature very useful, but he is fascinated by what he sees as they descend, giving a running commentary on the rock formations as they pass them in between his coughs and sneezes:

"Fascinating," he says to himself. "It's still limestone down here, but look at the different layers of sediment. This layer that we're traveling through now must be two million years old if it's a day. Absolutely fascinating."

Although Timex's constant geology lessons soon get to be very dull indeed, he is able to give the others a great deal of information regarding the state of their progress in terms of how deep down they are, and also the direction in which they are heading. Although it seems as if Timex could probably guide them back out of the tunnels through knowledge of depth and directions alone, Winnacer uses chalk to make marks on the walls every couple of minutes as a precaution against getting lost down here.

Booker continue to pad along in the front of the group, with Aithne leading the others a short distance behind. They continue to descend at a quite fast rate and the passage between the rocks continues to turn until it straightens out a little.

"We must be 200 feet underground by now," Timex reports, "and we're heading back eastwards now."

The passageway gets more and more damp as they continue downwards, and moisture drips constantly from the roof, making the floor of the passage slick, meaning that it is constantly slippery. As well as the dripping of the water, there are other sounds that pierce the stillness. Every now and again, Booker sees a rat or two in his path, as he continues to lead the way. They look up at him and then quickly scamper away, shrieking in terror as they go. There are also bats in the caves, hanging from nooks in the roof of the passageway. They tend to ignore the party as they pass beneath them. In addition to the few mammals that the party passes on thier journey, there are also plenty of insects, with spiders, ants and beetles scurrying around the floor and walls.

The passageway continues to get narrower and narrower. The roof is now only 4' from the ground and most of them are forced to bend over quite a way in order to keep going forwards. The sides of the cavern are just 2' wide in part and they are forced to turn slightly sidewards in order to continue with thier progress.

It is getting still damper underfoot now, with the water forming a thick film over the slippery rocks, meaning that they have to splash through them. After another ten minutes, they see that the fissure splits in two. Booker stops and lets Aithne catch up with him. She looks carefully around the two passageways and eventually finds some lichen that glows a little while using her infravision in the form of a runic symbol down one of the passageways. She directs Booker down that one and the party resumes their previous formation.

This branch of the fissure is even narrower and wetter than the previous one. The ceiling here is only 3' high and even Timex now has to stoop in order to continue moving. For the rest of them, the going is incredibly uncomfortable and their backs are already starting to ache from constantly bending down. The cold, narrow passageway is highly claustrophobic and the fear of the passageway subsiding is at the front of everyone's mind.

Progress along the passageway is incredibly slow and the passageway seems to stretch on forever, becoming only more narrow and shallow.

"We must be 400' under and starting to come underneath the village now," Timex reports.

The novelty of exploring the passageway has now worn off even for Timex and he remains quiet for most of the journey other than for his continual coughing and sneezing.

The ceiling of the passageway continues to get lower until it is now just over 2' tall. It is now impossible for anyone to stand upright in it and so they are forced to fall to their hands and knees in order to continue onwards.

Moving is now both very difficult and unpleasant. The water beneath them is now a couple of inches deep and the temperature of it is only a little above freezing. No matter how hard they try and keep their heads down, they still manage to keep bumping them on the uneven ceiling and their clothes and armor keep on snagging against the rocks, tearing the clothes and bashing the armor. They realize that they are making a hell of a noise as they move through the tunnel and that, should any creature approach them while they are here, then anything but a dagger would be impossible to use.

As they continue to crawl forwards, they are constantly confronted with insects, fortunately of the regular variety. They pass by the remains of centuries old cobwebs as they move forwards and can feel insects dropping onto their hair and crawling across their faces and down into their clothing, which simply adds to the miserable experience. Although they cannot see them properly, they all realize that their clothing is now torn and filthy and will be good for nothing but rags once, or if, they ever get out of this place alive. Right next to their faces, rats appear from crevices and squeal loudly before running away again.

Progress at the crawl is painfully slow and all of them start to pray that the tunnel will open up a little further along.

All of a sudden, Booker starts to bark:

"Word up," he snarls. "We got one ugly mutha comin' up fast here. This badass thang looks like a big armored slug to me, 'bout five foot long."

"That sounds like it might be a rust monster to me," Aithne shouts back. "Just keep it away from us."

"I dig," Booker says.

In the darkness of the tunnel, they can't really see what is going on ahead of them, but they can hear Booker growling and snarling ahead and the sound of some commotion which last for a couple of minutes. Eventually the snarling ceases and Booker reports:

"Man, that was one badass mutha," he snarls, "but I sent that cat a-flyin' back the way he came. Man, that dude was impossible to get a bite out of; armored plates in every direction and, man, could that mutha move. Hopefully that cat won't be botherin' us no more though."

They continue to crawl through the tunnel for another 15 minutes, during which time they have only managed to travel a few hundred feet according to Timex. They see that there is a fissure going off to their right, dropping down some five feet. The water from the narrow passageway that they are in flows off the edge of the crevice like a small waterfall. Tied around a jutting piece of rock is a crude knotted rope made from twisted vegetable fibers hanging down into the drop. Aithne looks around and sees another of the lichen rune symbols glowing along the new passageway.

"We need to go down this way, Booker," says Aithne pointing to the drop.

Booker sniff around:

"I hear yo, sistuh," he says, "but if we go down this way then yo goin' to be havin' some problem, cuz that metal munchin' monster mutha went down the other way. If ah lead on this way, then Booker can't be protecting yo pale white asses from that thang."

Porter, at the rear, does not like the sound of this at all. Winnacer passes him the bag of nails:

"If it comes after us, then throw these to it. It won't keep it at bay forever, but will buy you some time at least."

Booker then leaps down the five foot drop to the floor of the fissure below, landing with a loud splash, as the water is 6' deep in this section. The rest of them clamber down the rope and then continue to head after the black dog in the lead.

Progress along this section is a great deal easier than the previous one, as the ceiling is at the same level as the previous tunnel, although the floor is 5' deeper into the ground, meaning that it is possible to stand fully upright once more. As they splash onwards, Timex gives them another status report:

"We're over 600' down now. This branch has banked around to the east again. We must be right underneath the village at the moment."

Still they continue and they realize that you must have been underground for over two hours now. The tunnel is still descending slowly, banking to the right and left, but still continuing in an easterly direction. The corridor is continuing to widen, and is now 4' wide at this point. It's not wide enough to move at two abreast, but means that they do not keep bumping against the side of the walls and that it would be possible to change positions if needs be.

They notice that the ceiling is getting higher and higher now as the floor continues to descend, but the ceiling remains at a constant angle. They can see that there are now stalagmites on the floor and small stalactites hanging from the ceiling. They continue to wade onwards through the water, with the stalagmites and stalactites getting larger all the time. The walls of the corridor are getting further apart now, but still they are forced to keep in single file in order to walk through the stalagmites that are almost as tall as they are.

Suddenly Booker barks out to them once more:

"Yo, hold up there, there's some weird shit goin' down up here. Some of these spiky rocks up ahead got eyes looking down at me."

As they come to a halt, everything goes silent save for the dripping of the water from the roof above. Porter can hear some movement coming from the rear - something moving fast through the water in his direction.

Joy tenses as everyone prepares for a fight. She pulls out her flail to prepare herself and then pulls the hood of her cloak, which is beautiful and possibly elven in make, over her head.

Porter nocks an arrow in his bow, turning around to see what approaches. He calls out to Booker:

"Booker, back here with me! You ain't gonna be able to anything about those things up ahead."

"Sho thang, ma man," Booker barks, and immediately starts to head back in order to return to his master's side.

Although the tunnel is wider here than in the other parts that they have journeyed through, it is still a tight squeeze for the black dog to get past the stalagmites and the party members in between.

As Booker continues to barge through the others, Porter sees the creature heading towards him at a fast rate. As Booker described it, the creature looks very much like a giant armored slug, or a giant silverfish, save for its speed, which is remarkably fast.

With Booker still struggling to get past the rest of the party, Porter immediately hurls the bag of nails towards it as fast as he can. The nails fall from the sack as he throws them, showering into the water between him and the creature. Confirming the fact that this is indeed one of the metal eaters that Thrisk mentioned, the creature immediately comes to a halt at the first nail that it encounters and starts to eat.

Winnacer gives the bounty hunter a smile:

"Now that is sound thinking," he says.

Wasting no time, Porter raises his bow and fires two arrows at the creature in fast succession. Once again, however, Porter's cursed luck strikes again. His first arrow harmlessly bounces off the creature's armored carapace. As he pulls the bowstring back to loosen the second arrow, he pulls the string back a little too far and the damp string snaps in his hands, dropping the arrow into the water.

Porter immediately issues forth a torrent of curses and reaches into his pouch for a new bowstring in order to restring the bow.

Timex coughs and wheezes and pulls forth his mace:

"Does anyone here know how to use a mace? Mine has a handle of wood and a head of Pre-Zoanthic era granite, which means that it can't be harmed by the creature. I'd try and fight the creature myself, but I'm afraid that it would destroy my chainmail in less than a minute."

Before anyone has a chance to respond to the dwarf, however, Booker charges past, bounding through the water, heading for the rust monster. He is barking furiously as the black dog leaps upon the creature and tries to savage it. The creature's armored carapace seems to be almost impenetrable, however, and Booker cannot find any way through it.

However, the rust monster seems not to like being menaced by the dog at all and sees that there is no way past it to the metal in any case. As a result, it decides that it is time for another tactical retreat and so turns tail before running off. Booker snaps out at it as it turns and runs but, once again, there is no way to get around the creature's armor.

Booker heads after the fleeing creature, but soon starts to lose it as the rust monster moves incredibly fast through the narrow tunnel. The dog soon gives up on the chase and returns back to Porter.

"Someone's gotta be doin' somethin' about that ugly mutha," Booker says upon his return, "or else it's gonna be doggin' us the whole way there and back."

Meanwhile, at the front of the party, Aithne looks up at the stalactites:

"Piercers," she mutters. "I would imagine they'll be directly over the path so we can't avoid them. I wonder...."

She draws her bow and nocks an arrow into it, aiming up at the stalactites, watching them carefully to see if she can see which ones are the piercers. It is hard to tell them apart to start with, but after waiting for a minute or so, she can see that a group of the stalactites appear to be moving towards her. She immediately launches a couple of arrows at the nearest of them. She has a great deal more success in her shooting than Porter does, with both of her arrows hitting the 6' tall piercer that seems to be leading the others. However, the two hits do not slow it down at all, and it continues to slowly move across the ceiling towards her, with others following it.

Aithne calmly nocks another arrow into her bow:

"I think that I've got another three or four minutes of shooting at them before they are going to start falling on me," she says. "I should be able to take one or two of them out in that time, but certainly not all of them."

"Can anyone do anything to help me?" she asks casually.

"Unless they come within range of Chanticleer, I'm afraid not," Rowan confesses.

Winnacer looks up at the ceiling of the fissure. He sees that it is some 20' high at this point and so it is impossible for any of them to reach the piercers with their melee weapons. He sees, however, that the walls of the tunnel are very rough, and that anyone with a bit of climbing experience should not have a problem in scaling them.

He calls out to the others:

"How about if someone climbed up the wall and just either burned them, or pried them off the ceiling?" he asks. "They can't attack somebody on their level, only beneath them."

Porter looks up to check out the walls for himself:

"It looks like it should be possible," Porter says, scratching his chin as he looks for possible hand and footholds. "However, I'll need some decent footholds or else I won't be able to aim at them properly."

Winnacer reaches into his backpack and produces a mallet and some more nails:

"They're not coming so fast," he says. "I think I should have time to knock some of these nails in to help you with the climb."

He then reaches into his belt and pulls forth his dagger, which he offers to Porter:

"Here," he says. "Perhaps this might be a better tool for the task than your sword. Not only will it be easier for you to carry, but I think that you might just be able to pry them off the ceiling by slipping it beneath them. Once they are on the ground, then we should be able to make light work of them."

Porter nods. He secures his bastard sword to his belt just in case he might have need of it after all. He then clasps the dagger between his teeth and watches on as Winnacer starts to hammer nails into the walls to ease his route up.

As Winnacer does so, Aithne continues to shoot at the piercers as they slowly make their way towards the group. Once again she manages to hit the faux-stalactite. It is bang on target and is sufficient to send the spike falling to the ground a few yards in front of her, where is lands in the water with a loud splash.

Calmly, she nocks another arrow into her bow and fires at the following piercer. She manages to hit this one too, but it continues coming forwards. With uncanny accuracy, she fires another two arrows at the piercer, with both of them finding their mark. This is enough to finish off the second of the piercers, as it also falls to the floor.

Winnacer has hammered the first of the spikes into the wall now and so Porter starts his ascent. For a man of his experience, the climb is not a difficult one at all and much easier than the stone walls of buildings that he has had more experience of climbing. As a result, the nails are barely necessary. He climbs up the south wall of the tunnel and very quickly manages to rise to near the top of the wall. At the top of the passageway, the walls are closer together, and he finds that he is able to throw his leg over to the north wall, wedging himself in the crevice between them.

Once he is up here, he manages to use the real stalactites to cling to and makes his way forwards to where Aithne is at the head of the party.

As Porter continues his climbing in order to get into position, Aithne shoots at the piercers again, aiming for one in the middle this time so as not to endanger Porter. The one that she is aiming at is smaller than the others, and her first shot misses. The second one hits, however, although the damage is not sufficient to drop the gray spike.

Porter is in position now. Wedging himself between the walls tightly, he steadies himself by wrapping his arm around a real stalactite and takes the dagger from between his jaws.

He looks down and sees that Aithne is right below him now:

"Watch out below," he shouts.

Aithne, more concerned about trying to take down as many of the piercers as possible with her bow, looks up and then shuffles back a little, the others behind her backing up to give her room.

The closest of the piercers is now at arm's length from Porter. He reaches over to it with dagger in hand and jams the blade of the dagger between the piercer and the ceiling. With a bit of effort, he manages to slip the dagger between them and then twists the blade as hard as he can. He is rewarded by a slurping noise and then, to his delight, sees the piercer fall to the floor, where it lands with a splash.

Once she sees that Porter has been successful, Aithne slings her longbow over her shoulder and draws her shortsword. The piercer is now on its side in the water. Slowly it is rolling over and trying to move a little. Aithne investigates the creature carefully and sees that the wide end of the spike, normally hidden by the ceiling, is soft and moist, looking a little like the foot of a snail or slug. She puts her foot on the side of the piercer in order to stop it moving and then thrusts her shortsword up through its foot. Immediately, the piercer goes still, as greenish mucous starts to spill from its underbelly.

No sooner has Aithne dispatched the first of them than the second comes with range of Porter above. Checking that Aithne is clear below, Porter repeats the operation and, once again, the creature crashes to the floor where Aithne quickly finishes it off with her shortsword.

Proving that the piercers have the intelligence of a mollusk, the ease with which their follow creatures are being dealt with does not effect the behavior of the others at all and so they blindly continue to head towards the party, where Porter and Aithne easily finish them. After a little under five minutes, a total of nine dead piercers lay in the water before Aithne.

His work now finished, Porter carefully retraces his steps and lands back in his position at the rear of the party, where Booker is waiting for him, wagging his tail enthusiastically:

"Yo, dude," Booker greets him. "Way to go ma man. Gimme some paw."

Booker presents his paw to him once more and Porter gives him another slap.

"OK, Booker, back to the front now," Porter then says. "There's just three hours left and then that's the last that I shall be seeing of you for a week."

"Shaw thang, ma man," Booker replies. "Ahm there, dude."

With that, Booker squeezes past the rest of the party, bounds over the deceased piercers and then takes his place 50' ahead of the rest of the group and they start to move off again.

The tunnel continues in the same fashion for the next five minutes, with the ceiling and walls staying a little under 10' apart. The water that they are traipsing through starts to get a little shallower here and Timex informs them that the tunnel is rising ever so slightly. The stalactites above them and stalagmites rising from the floor start to get smaller and smaller as they advance until, after another ten minutes of travel, they are no longer present at all.

"We're way beyond the village now," Timex reports. "The tunnel is heading in a northeasterly direction now, so we're heading towards Opava."

The walls of the tunnel are further apart here, much to their great relief, as they are now over 12' apart, meaning that it is now easily possible for two to stand abreast and there will be no more problems in bringing their swords to bear.

They carry on for another ten minutes and then see, with some alarm, that there is some kind of light ahead - a strange greenish colored light. The group immediately stops upon seeing the light, nervous that it might be the ratman checkpoint ahead. Porter walks forwards and speaks to Booker:

"Booker, can you run up ahead and have a look at what that light is?" he asks the black Rottweiler. "Be careful though. Just a quick look would be fine."

Booker growls his agreement and quietly pads through the inch deep water towards the light. He returns a couple of minutes later and reports:

"Word up, posse," he starts. "There's some weird shit goin' down ahead. The corridors full o' some fungus shit. It goes on for about 120'. The tunnel's a bit wider there, about 18' across."

"I'm tellin' ya, man, there's some weird shit there. There's green shit, purple shit, yellow shit, white shit. All kinds o' shit. An' I don't like the look o' none o' that shit at all."