To the bottom! The Deepcombers are professional dungeon crawlers in a print-crazed medieval society where reckless teenagers reign supreme above ground and blood thirsty creatures dwell below. Lonastasius is a 17 year old mutant slave who breaks his...
Lon nudged Melcart and pointed at the scratch marks on the oak door.
"They're old. Likely from the sawyers."
The woodsfeigor from Dundae knew that wasn't true, but he wasn't going to make a scene and turn around now because of a few fresh scratch marks.
The two pressed forward through a narrow stone corridor. They'd only traveled twelve paces beyond the armory door when they came to an diagonal sloped intersection. The passage before them was rubble that could have once been stairs. Lon stuck his bright torch into the new space and heard a rodent stampede in the recesses beyond his eyesight; a chorus of squeaks and hisses and chattering sounds came from below. It was frightening. A ledge could be seen above to the right. Melcart drew his shiny new sword from his belt and started in that direction. Lon waited until the ruckus subsided before he stepped out onto the rubble.
"You're choosing up?"
"Seems preferable," Melcart reached back and Lon passed him up the torch. Mel stood-up to see if the ledge above was free of any malicious lifeforms.
"But I seek the bottom of Atarskal..." Lon said, "it must be down."
"Not necessarily," Melcart explained. "The blood pipe went that way. I think it's safe to say that's where the rats eat..."
Lon reckoned he was right. But why feed them blood? Suddenly he was glad there was a tall stone ledge here and he liked that it was steep. It was a false sense of security though for blood thirsty rats could easily scale these heights.
"Be careful here" Melcart pointed to where the stonework was loose and would likely crumble underfoot. Lon shifted to avoid the crack.
At the top of the mini cliff was a rough-hewed rock passage. Unlike the waterborne passages this line had been chiseled with pick and shovel. Cobwebs shrouded the corridor and the very best way to clear them was with the torch. The sea drover stepped back to watch the fire consume the silky webs. It made a huge blue orange flash. More little feet scurried away and they saw a dozen yellow eyes reflect the flame.
"Go on. Shoo!" Melcart stamped the ground and drew forth his shiny sword.
The furry rodents reluctantly gave up the ground and two explorers crept further down a long straight tunnel. They saw the white panel from fifty feet away.
On the right-side of the passage Lon spied a six-foot wide alabaster surface lightly dusted with orange lichen. It was clearly a foreign object. The rest of the mountain was the same green granite but here in this wall was a white block. On its face was an ornately carved design that featured four silver discs, each with a different Varget symbol.
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Four icons faced them, and Lon recognized the marks as the same signs Zed had etched in wax on the table in the grotto. But they were out of order.
"It's the elements," Lon said, "or it wants to be."
"No. The four brothers. See here." Melcart showed Lon the diamond-shaped consciousness runes embossed in the lichen above the disks which meant the elements were part of more complicated constructs representing the four different lifeforms made by Kluth. This was also in Zed's lesson.
