[coronatiger]

Thoughts on July 16th

On the way to the next quest site, I asked the others when they have birthdays. Magnar’s isn’t too far off, August 14th, but Kine admitted she didn’t know when she was born. Lady Karita didn’t deign to tell me; she just said her birthday was in the middle of April.

We’ve seen very few animals down here in the mines so far. I can’t actually remember the last time, and suspect something unnatural is going on, probably something Chaotic. But today Lady Karita pointed out a rat scurrying away from us.

As we approached the entrance to the quest site, a foul, rotten stench assaulted our nostrils. Earlier, we’d talked about setting up camp inside, but if the smell was even worse inside, we’d have to reconsider.

We noticed arrow slits in the walls before the door, which fortunately was open. Lady Karita, now an experienced trap finder, discovered a trap door just inside, and asked Magnar if he would be so kind as to take his war hammer and hit the trap door. He said no. Then Kine asked him if he’d take a tent pole and prod the trap door. He took out his war hammer with a demonstrative glare at Lady Karita, and struck the trap door, revealing a five-yard-deep and five-yard-long hole, with a forest of rusted metal spikes protruding from the bottom.

Magnar held a rope for me to climb down, so I could investigate. It didn’t look like someone had smeared anything wet onto the spikes, but they didn’t look like they needed poison to kill either. Walking among them, I took care not to get cut. I can’t believe cutting myself on rusty metal can be very healthy.

I studied the mechanism of the trap door, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so I climbed back up. As the distance across was only five yards, I leapt across easily, eager to take a look on the other side. Magnar, who didn’t want to be upstaged by a mere novice adventurer, followed suit, but with considerable caution. Lady Karita followed as well, but Kine didn’t dare, so she stayed behind with Olivia while the rest of us went to take a look inside the doorway on the side of the corridor.

It opened up into a long chamber parallel to the corridor. We could see the arrow slits, and two levers, one large and one small. There were no traps, according to Lady Karita. We guessed the large lever would close the trap door, while the small one would lock it. We were right. Testing with increasingly heavier loads, we eventually got everything across the trap door. Wanting to prevent anyone from following us, we unlocked the trap door again. The wagon was nearly as wide as the corridor, and we placed it so that there wouldn’t be any ledge to land on if someone tried jumping over the trap. We should be safe, said Lady Karita, since I was the only one in the world who’d be able to jump across and slide under the wagon. The comment made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Leaving Olivia to set up camp, the rest of us proceeded along the corridor in the usual marching order, with Lady Karita in front searching for traps, Magnar at her side in case of an ambush, and Kine and me in the back, sauntering along.

At the end of the corridor, we found a staircase leading several stories down. At the first landing, there were two corridors heading off. Lady Karita said we should take the one to the right. Knowing her order would rile Magnar, and that he wouldn’t like to follow my order either, I said we should go left, hoping he’d choose the way an experienced adventurer would consider the wisest, rather than taking the option Lady Karita didn’t choose. He’s so jealous of Lady Karita’s social standing and of my fame, he only follows suggestions from Kine. Or in this case, a coin toss.

We found a series of rooms that were probably dwellings, and decided to search them more thoroughly later. The floor below may have been communal rooms, including a kitchen, and again we decided to proceed down before picking through the scrapheaps for hidden treasure.

The next floor was covered with three feet of water. Kine took Magnar’s lantern, because he wanted to use one hand to hold his expensive shield above water, and the other to protect the beard. There was a disagreement about what kind of rooms there were on this floor; Lady Karita said they were a bazaar, while Kine thought they were the homes of rich people. I didn’t care one way or the other, I just figured this would be a likely place to find something interesting.

Before we started diving for treasures, we left all inessential items behind in the stairwell. Kine and I stripped off our clothes as well, and laid them out to dry. Lady Karita sniffed and kept her clothes on. Magnar remained in his armor.

We found a few valuables before returning to camp. We used water from the small barrel, which we are fairly certain it’s safe to drink, to wash away the worst of the stench. Neither Olivia nor I was keen on any kind of kissing, but we still managed to have a good time tonight.


Thoughts on July 17th

It was a quiet watch. At breakfast, I asked the others whether they knew how to swim, and Magnar said that he could.

Not knowing that he’d find pockets of air, Magnar bravely dove into the foul water. Lady Karita went to search some of the areas we had passed through quickly, yesterday. After a minute and a half, Kine and I started getting seriously worried, so she went after him. She came back telling me she couldn’t find him; he had likely drowned.

Kine and I went up the stairs to tell Lady Karita, and to help her search. Magnar returned shortly after, to our collective relief. For some reason, Kine doubted his identity, and tried asking questions only Magnar would know the answers to. The result of the interrogation was inconclusive, but Lady Karita ordered him to stay there, on guard, while she went down to search where he had failed, and the way the dwarf balked against the command convinced Kine that it truly was Magnar who had returned.

I suggested that we let someone else, preferably somebody who can breathe under water as well as see where lanterns can’t be brought, search the drowned areas. Refusing to comply with Lady Karita’s order to stay on dry land, Magnar decided to go under again. He found a few tools down there, that for some reason hadn’t rusted. When we all gathered at lunch, Magnar told us that he wanted to continue searching in the water.

The rest of us searched for a while on dry land, before Magnar came back and reported that the sub-aquatic area was large; there even was another level below. He also said that he’d seen a large fish, and that he wanted to prepare for combat. We asked if it wasn’t too dangerous to fight fish in its own element, but he exclaimed a three-word curse, having to do with procreating with the fish. I said no thanks, and Lady Karita murmured that apparently there was a limit to my proclivities. Kine and I used the rest of the water from the small barrel to wash, before Magnar converted the barrel to a diving bell. Someone jokingly called it a suicide box.

Magnar went under, and didn’t return. Fearing the worst, but hoping that he’d come up on the other side and was trying to find the way back, we split the night watch in two. Nobody wanted to deprive Lady Karita of her sleep, and like always, I refused to be alone on guard.