The Svirfneblin Settlement.
Discussing possibilities of more undead rising from the burial crypt, the mourners allow
Brother Symeon to perform some ritual blessing, a requiem for the miner slain by a 'fearsome creature of earth and stone' in another vein of tunnels.
After putting the deceased to rest and being assured his state of repose will not be disturbed, the crypt is resealed and you leave, accompanied to the settlement proper. In sealing the tomb,
Brother Symeon , you not that the edge of the stone rolled over the crypt passage contains a few etched runes which disturb your mind. You keep quiet about them, meditating on what they might mean as you go.
I have posted in your private forum. You can discuss and reveal information publicly.
It is a short walk through narrow and twisting passages. Surprisingly it opens out into wide circular cave with a forested floor. Above you open sky and towering rock walls. Eons ago a giant sinkhole opened up, swallowing the earth above and creating this large cavern. Now it is home to a Svirfneblin tribe who live in caves, troglodytes fashion that ring the circumference on various levels.
Fydmar can get a sudden panic attack, reflecting his previous experience of adventuring in the Harpy lair. This cavern would surely suit such vulturine creatures and indeed, you can spot occasional birds flying in and out of the skyward opening.
Fydmar (
roleplay out a panic attack as a result of your low d20 roll result).
Svirfneblin mine in tunnels that spread out into the subterranean surrounds, probably a dozen tunnels.
if you imagine them as points on a clock, then figure those from 4-8 might wind their way towards the Chalk cliffs, Xvart camp and the southerly direction you explored from. On the actual forest floor, a few creatures graze. Goats and chickens mill freely and you can unpack BabeRuth so she can be taken to a secure pen.
Geojimali explains things as you go, giving you basic information. The tribe is in trouble, going through some unrest. As if 'unrest' was not enough from the presence of haunting ghosts that wander some of the southern caves,
(you have experienced a few 'ghostly or surreal' encounters but missed actual ghost or spectral ones). There is also 'unrest' from within. He views
Chief Trakratos with suspicion and clearly blames him for the death of his kinsman. Some of the northern veins of mine workings have been stopped as projects, forcing miners to travail in the haunted shafts.
Many of the Deep Gnomes are getting sick too. Grey skin is common among them but many are greying further, losing hair, losing teeth. Bones becoming brittle, diarrhea and nausea rife, vertigo and memory loss. He rubs his own shaven head.
"We were stout, doughty and steadfast. Now we faint and our women are becoming barren." he scratches his crotch wondering if any sterile nature affects him personally. He falls into silence as you approach 'the interior forest' of the Sinkhole. The rock walls must tower above you by at least five hundred feet before opening out to clear sky. It gives each a sense of vertigo just looking up. There are no apparent access routes to the exterior Blackened Forest that you can see, certainly no cut out rock steps and no tower of scaffold or laddering. Unless you have wings or magic, it might be a tough exercise even for the most agile of climbers.
Chief Trakratos.
A wizened green-grey skinned Gnomish figure. Clothed in basic leather skirt and jerkin but sporting a circlet studded with diamonds and exotic stones which must symbolise his prestige or prominence among the tribe. He clutches a large stone in his grasp, cuddling it as one might careful hold a fragile egg. It has a baleful radiance, not an emanating evil as an undead figure exposes, this is more of an unusual, unearthly appearance.
In the faint throb of greenish pulse, he greets so, gesturing you to sit in his presence and share your testimony. Svirfneblin serve you water, taken from butts and guttering that catch the rainfall along with freshly baked bread, seeded with nuts and copious amounts of strawberry conserve. Hardly a banquet but sufficient to keep a hungry appetite at bay. The foreman
Geojimali introduced you, sharing how you helped secure the burial.
His quarters, a series of small caves are basic hovels carpeted in rugs made from wolverine pelts. His fixtures and fittings are spartan, rustic furniture and stone utensils; a curtain made from strings of beads leads to an interior cave, incense from candles waft out of there though you cannot perceive through it.
"Miners mine, it is our vocation. To cleave the rocks and shape our lives as much as it shapes us." he comments, suggesting that such industry is just a natural destiny for Svirfneblin.
actions and comments please.
anything I have missed or not given info on, just shout up.