The Caverns of Kronos

The Old Mines - Part 3

     The tunnel ran straight for hundreds of yards and they stayed with it all the way to the end, despite the side corridors they came across from time to time. At the end of the tunnel was a row of three airlocks, identical to the ones in the city above, and they felt a sharp stab of fear when their questing hands felt out what they were, thinking they’d come to another impassable dead end. These doors had been left open, though, and they were able to walk straight through without any trouble. Whatever catastrophe had ravaged the city above had evidently not affected this part of the mines.

     On the other side of the airlocks was a large circular chamber at least thirty feet across, and Shaun’s sword felt out the outline of a ten foot wide shaft in the centre. After some thought they decided to risk a little light, so Diana gingerly brought out her little caroli flower, allowing its light to illuminate the room.

     Some rusty winch equipment was attached to the ceiling above the shaft, looking as though it was getting ready to crumble to dust, and the remains of another couple of trolleys lay in a heap against the wall. The shaft went down into the unknown darkness, its sides furred with mana moss, and they saw a set of rusty iron handholds along one side, presumably once used by the miners to climb to and from the rock face. They looked scarcely more solid than the winch equipment, but when Shaun got down on his hands and knees to tug the uppermost one he found it to be quite solid and secure, easily capable of supporting his weight. Whether the others further down were in as good condition, of course, was a completely different question.

     There was no other way out, and they all looked at each other, all thinking the same thing, until Shaun broke the silence. “I’ll go first," he said. "I’m the heaviest, so if they can support my weight they’ll be able to support the rest of you as well.” He swung his legs over the edge.

     “Be careful!” warned Lirenna fearfully. “Oh if only we still had that Autumnleaf ring.”

     “Well we haven’t, so there’s no point wishing for it,” replied the soldier and, with a whispered prayer to whatever Gods might be listening, he grasped the iron handhold and slowly put more and more of his weight onto it. When it was supporting all his weight and still showed no sign of breaking or coming loose, he carefully began to make his way down.

     The others watched nervously as he descended, Diana holding her silver caroli flower out over the shaft to illuminate him. Its light was beginning to fade, however, as the holy power of Caroli began to leave it, so Thomas added a drop of activating fluid to the glowbottle and soon its ruddy red glow had replaced the cleric’s pure, pearly white light. They were all relieved by this, despite the fact that it reduced their range of visibility considerably. The duller light was much less likely to be seen by the Konnens.

     After a few minutes Shaun called softly up to tell them he’d reached the bottom. “A couple of rungs came away in my hands,” he said, “but all the rest feel pretty secure. Come on down.”

     They made their way down one at a time, being careful to watch out for the missing rungs, and soon they were all standing at the bottom, looking around curiously. They were in another cavern. They couldn’t tell how big it was, as the glowbottle only illuminated a small part of the wall they’d climbed down and small patches of the floor and ceiling, leaving darkness on their other three sides, but some quality of the air and the sound of their soft, whispering voices told them that it was big, probably at least a hundred yards across. Thomas hurriedly hid the glowbottle in his clothing, fearing that the Konnens might even now be entering the same cavern through another entrance. He explained his fears to the others and they agreed, thinking it safer to remain in darkness for a while.