---Turn 26---

---Duncan, Darmon, and Elias in Pit 9---

The blasting store was a small cavern hollowed out from the end of a short turning side passage. Two small kegs of blasting powder stood on the floor on one side next to a coil of rope. Chisels, ropes, an empty keg, props, and other mining equipment were neatly stacked on the floor.

Squinting to try and get a better view of the items in the poor light, Duncan moved slowly in. Carefully bending at the knees, he knelt and picked up the first keg, testing its weight. Straightening, he turned and shuffled his way back through the narrow entrance, walking a short way down the tunnel before putting the keg down and looking over to the others.

"They don't seem too heavy: You should be able to manage that other barrel between you."

Impulsively pushing Darmon aside, Elias stepped inside to heft the remaining powder keg onto his thin shoulder. Turning, he pushed past him again and headed back towards the ladder. "You just keep yer eyes open, sonny, and let us know if you see anything worth mentioning. And try not to get in the way, if you can, " he called as he passed.

Darmon trotted after Elias up the tunnel. Duncan let them both pass before stepping back inside, scratching his chin as he thought. Grunting to himself after a moment, he stooped to pick up one of the thick coils of rope on the floor and slung it over his shoulder. Turning quickly, he hurried back into the corridor where he once more picked up his keg of powder. Stepping off into a trot, he hurried to catch up with Darmon and Elias as they moved back towards the rickety ladder.

Putting down his keg at the end of the tunnel, Duncan unslung the coiled rope from around his shoulders and dropped it onto the ground. After fiddling with it for a moment, he found a free end and tied it firmly to his belt before turning back to face Elias. "You're a miner, right? So you know how to use ropes and knots best out of all of us here," he said, glancing down towards the coil on the ground. "Do you think this rope could hold the weight of one of those kegs? And would it reach this level from the top?"

Elias glared at the rope before stooping down to lift a length and pull it out straight. Satisfied, he nodded. "Don't you worry none about gettin' this stuff up top. This rope should do the trick jest fine."

Nodding, Duncan edged closer to the narrow ladder. "I was thinking of climbing up with this end of the rope, and then hauling the kegs up one by one. I am -definitely- not going to try climbing up the ladder while carrying one of them..." he said, casting a quick glance in Darmon's direction.

"OK, I'll start climbing then," Duncan said, still nodding, "And you secure the first keg to the other end of the rope. I'll pull the rope 3 times when I get to the top, and you do the same after that to show that the keg is attached. D' you think you'll be able to tie it off properly?"

"Less chatter and more climbin', young feller. We'll take care of things on this end." Elias replied, hustling Duncan towards the ladder, the rope trailing after him like a rat's tail.

The Miner and the Initiate watched the Labourer's light disappear into the darkness. The air seemed much colder without the extra candlelight. Elias looped the end of the rope around the first of the kegs knotting it once, twice, and thrice for luck. The rope twitched three times and Darmon lent forward to tug it in reply. Elias stepped back as Duncan began to gather in the slack. "I'd suggest that you keep back as them things is goin' up, sonny" he murmured to Darmon. "I've seen perfectly good lookin' ropes break for no good reason and bring lots o' good miners to grief."

 

---Xavier and Aenarion in Pit 13---

After two hundred paces or more a cubby-hole opened on the right hand side of the tunnel. A narrow ladder made from wooden staves a little thicker than a man's thumb disappeared up and down into darkness. Aenarion stepped past the ladder without appearing to notice it, so Xavier tapped him on the arm and cocked his head in the ladder's direction. The Elf just shook his head.

Xavier gave Aenarion a look of puzzlement. "I say, didn't Hortion tell us to take the ladder down to the bottom level?"

The Elf gave him a tight smile and hefted the bulky sack on his back. "I was hoping for a way to carry this down." He shrugged and swung his load to the ground, leaning his staff against the wall.

The sack's neck was tied shut with an expertly knotted narrow cord but Aenarion's delicate fingers quickly picked the knots apart. Something glinted just inside the opening but Xavier's view was obscured as the Elf shrugged his over-large cloak off and laid it gently to the ground. Easing the sacking back, he lifted the breastplate out and worked his arms one-by-one into the straps. He pulled each one tight before pulling the cloak back on. Still kneeling, he rummaged around in the bottom of the sack before withdrawing a couple of twists of paper, a feather, and three bits from some dead animal. Opening his purse, he tucked them into it and lent down for another rummage. The only things left in the sack were a couple of damp-looking travel-stained soft shoes in some shade of green. These were tucked into the back of the Elf's belt along with the now-empty bag. Aenarion stood and flexed his shoulders, settling the almost-forgotten weight. As he did so, the cloak opened and the Student caught a quick glimpse of an intricate design picked out in bronze on the left breast of the steel plate. Impassive once more, Aenarion loosened his sword in its scabbard before flicking the cloak closed and picking up his staff. With a nod of his head, he gestured his companion forward.

 

---Duncan, Darmon, and Elias in Pit 9---

Duncan caught hold of Darmon's sleeve and pulled him off the ladder. After a moment, Elias' head appeared through the gap in the floor. Duncan reached to help him up but Elias slapped his hand away, swarmed up the ladder and stepped off onto the floor. Not pausing for breath, he scooped up the nearest barrel and set off for the mine's entrance. Darmon hung back so Duncan hefted the second keg and followed Elias' outside.

 

---Xavier and Aenarion in Pit 13---

There was a boy in filthy rags waiting for Aenarion and Xavier at the bottom of the ladder. He took a quick glance at the two neatly-dressed strangers before scampering up the ladder with a bag full of rocks on his back.

The tunnel led two ways from where the two stood. To their left, they could hear the clink of steel on stone and muffled voices. There was also the faint glow of lantern-light but the light itself was out of sight behind the curve of the tunnel. There was nothing but darkness to the right but they could make out a crude tunnel the width of a man leading down. Xavier turned left and the Elf followed him. Some twenty paces on they rounded a corner and stepped into a small cavern. Two men stood digging lumps of a dark stone out of the wall with well-worn picks while a third stuffed the larger lumps into a series of canvas bags propped up against a wall. The lantern hung from a chisel driven into a natural crack in the wall at head-height. Xavier coughed politely into his fist and the third man looked up. Surprised, he cuffed the nearest miner and the other two turned round to stare. "Umm, excuse me…" Xavier started, hesitantly. "We were told that you had found a…thing down here, somewhere?" The three stared at him.

"Who sent you?"

"Umm… Short bloke - Dwarven. Name of…"

"Hortion?"

"Yes!" Xavier looked very much relieved. "Hortion. We were just talking to him, the Alchemist, and the Factor in the Dusty Throat. They said we should take a look." The three miners looked at each other warily. Eventually the eldest, his face plastered with black dust, nodded.

"Come this way." He tossed his pick to the sitting man and headed up the tunnel, back the way Xavier and Aenarion had just come. When they reached the ladder, he turned sideways and half walked, half climbed down the tunnel on the other side. Xavier followed immediately but Aenarion hesitated, looking at his staff. After a moment, he changed the staff to his other hand and followed the others. The staff was too tall and unwieldy to fit easily but by angling it away and dragging it through the worst places he still made reasonable time.

After a few paces, the tunnel forked. The tunnel they had been following widened up ahead and levelled off while an even narrower tunnel turned right and carried on down. After four or five paces, this smaller tunnel opened out into a small natural cavern.

This cavern was perfectly circular with a domed roof. In the centre was an alter-sized block of black stone. Strange symbols were carved into the sides of this block but the top was smooth apart from a large symbol of a winged rodent or bat and a series of grooves running the shorter length. The walls of the cavern were clad in the same black stone and carved with similar symbols. The cladding slabs fit together perfectly although in the darkness it was impossible to see how they formed the dome. A large crack ran down the wall where the adventurers had entered - the result of recent blasting to open this section of the mine. The crack ran across the floor before it hit something and turned. Aenarion knelt and used the edge of his cloak to wipe the dust away. A faint line was carved into the single black slab that formed the floor. Working quickly, he and Xavier uncovered the rest of the line. The miner looked on, his face blank although his eyes were ever so slightly afraid.

Eventually the two had finished. Aenarion walked round the block once before standing back against the wall to consider the pattern.

"An eight-pointed star!" he whispered. The miner made the Sign of the Hammer and muttered something. The Elf spun and ran his fingers up the wall, his lips moving faintly as he tried to read the carvings.

"What does it say?" Xavier whispered. Aenarion shook his head.

"It's a strange mixture of Arcane Magick and what looks like the Dark Tongue. There are other bits - like this one here - in something else. It looks like a cross between Magick and the Dark Tongue… Arcane Demonic, perhaps." He stopped, re-read a bit, and began to read out loud, translating loosely as he went:

"Darkness answers temple's calling;

Black night turns to blacker morning;

Red as nightmare is the dawn;

Life un-living bloody born."

Xavier shivered. "Sounds…jolly…" Aenarion shook his head.

"I've seen that verse once before, in a book in a Witch Hunter's evidence. It means that whoever carved these words here was damned, damned to hell. That kind of evil doesn't fade, not even in the hundreds of years that altar" he pointed at the block Xavier was leaning against "and that eight-pointed pentagram have been buried." Xavier startled and fled the centre of the cavern. Their guide had already retreated up the passage. The Elf took a slow breath, forcing his racing heart to slow.

"We've not got long before 'blacker morning'. We dare not destroy this temple or the tunnel to seal it - we don't know what magics we might release. Instead we'll have to somehow stop the 'darkness' answering the temple's 'calling'."

The tall graceful Elf looked somehow small and lost in that dark room under the mountain.

"I think that whatever thing chased us through the snow last night…" He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, "…or was it the night before?" He took another slow breath and continued: "Was - or rather, will be - the 'life un-living'. If I understand this inscription correctly, we have to stop that thing from reaching this temple."

"So we have to fight Chaos off? Us? Just us? Is that all?" Xavier's voice broke on the last syllable and he faked a cough to hide it.

"No, not Chaos." The Elf pointed at the altar again. "That's the symbol of 'the Bat Cult'. Whatever 'darkness' answered this call serves the Vampires' cause."

 

---End Turn---