Edrin Northstar moved through the cavern with delicate care.
The collapse was hard in some areas. What was once a huge underground
cavern stretching more than 600 meters was now a spelunking
excursion caused by the dragon's death throws.
"I've always considered you stranger than most elves"
Tordek said as he tested the ceiling of their tunnel with his
pick axe. "You don't find many elves of your type down
here in the underground." The dwarf nodded his head to
the ceiling and grunted. "Looks solid enough for what we're
doing." he mumbled and continued forward.
"Time buries her secrets Tordek. If you want them you
have to be willing to get a little dirty." Edrin replied
and followed the dwarf, having to crouch low to get through
the tunnel the dwarf was leading him through.
"Humph." grumbled Tordek, and then in his own language
said, "She's not the only one."
Edrin had many years of experience with incursions underground
to seek out the hiding places of artifacts and knowledge of
the past, but very little experience with new cave-ins and there
was the lava flow to consider as well. Tordek was happy to lend
his considerable expertise, and Edrin suspected he was pleased
to be out of Fort Ire. Too much sitting around made Tordek agitated.
"You sure this dragon of yours is dead?" Tordek asked
as he moved aside a large rock and peered into the darkness
ahead of him.
Edrin thought about the 200 foot obsidian obelisk, 50 feet
wide spearing up from the ground as if shot from a ballista,
through the chest of the dragon and splitting it apart as it
thunder up through the roof of the temple. He remembered the
terrible roar of the dragon as it was sundered against the roof
and the rain of blood and gore covering everything as he threw
the last of the crew into the Realm of Shadows to escape the
cave-in. "I hope so." Edrin responded. "Why do
you ask?"
"Because I found the bridge Mac Anu described." Tordek
responded thumping stone with the shaft of his pickaxe. "Seems
solid enough. I don't think it collapsed under the weight of
these rocks."
"How far have we come?" Edrin asked, pulling out
a note book and a writing stick of charcoal, making a few notes.
Tordek looked back past Edrin, and scratched his beard. "I
would say about a mile an a half from the Urkhadi city at the
mouth of this cavern."
"Seems like we have come much further than that."
Edrin said, wrapping the notebook back up and storing it in
his leather jacket.
"That's because we have; probably three times as far,
crawling through these piles of rocks." Tordek responded.
"Then let's take a break, before we get inside the temple.
Not sure when we will have another chance to eat and rest after
this." Edrin said, taking off his pack, and sitting down.
Tordek found a rock to sit on and shouldered off his pack as
well, finding a hunk of dried meat, a little hard cheese and
a loaf of bread about as hard as the meat. He took out a sharp
knife and began slicing from each of the squares and popping
them in his mouth, thinking as he chewed.
"What's the hurry here?" Tordek asked as he sliced
through the loaf of bread. "This stuff is buried now. What
are you looking for if the dragon is dead?"
Good question, Edrin thought to himself. What am I looking
for? The tower artifact, Mortalus, certainly. An artifact like
that would be worth more than a few years study. Even the wizard
Takain with his preference for fire magic would be interested
in such an artifact. A one inch cube that on command turned
into a 200' obelisk, 50' wide with walls as strong as Adamantine,
would interest anyone in the arts. Who created such a device,
and why would they leave it on the entrance to the worship chamber
of the dragon?
According to Mac Anu and Heilan, the tower was standing on
the door to the tunnel below. Heilan said that the doorway was
made of Adamantine, yet had no lock, with only a simple ring
handle, such as those that humans might make. The craftsmanship
Heilan said, was poor by anyone's standards. It just didn't
make any sense to Edrin that a people with the skills to work
with a metal as hard as Adamantine would not be skilled enough
to make a good door.
The dragon itself was reason enough. Slarecian Dragons, still
living on the face of Scarn, even if they were in a state of
sleep so deep that breathing wasn't necessary, was something
he needed to know about. He didn't know much about them at all.
He knew there were hundreds of them before the Gods and Titans
went to war with the Slarecian race over 500 years ago. It is
even said in some of the old writings that it was the existence
and power of these dragons which finally brought the Titans
into the war with their children the Gods. It was also said
that the breath of these dragons blasted the magic out of even
the strongest of wizards, and that some of them could even blast
away the power of the Gods.
All of this was in old writings and stories passed down through
the ages. To find a living Slarecian Dragon here, now, was unthinkable.
To be able to study its corpse and try to validate some of the
ancient stories was an opportunity Edrin didn't wan to miss.
Especially if this was not the last one.
"The Urkhadi are a trading people." Edrin finally
said to Tordek. "They have always known that a great evil
was back inside this cavern where they lived. They know that
long ago tribes of primitive humans use to worship that evil.
They also know that the great evil has perished."
Tordek laughed, and took a swig of beer from his water skin.
"What's so funny". Edrin asked.
Tordek chuckled and said, "Oh, just the Urkhadi describing
anyone as primitive." He looked over at Edrin, "Now
don't start lecturing me about the Urkhadi. I know they aren't
primitive and that they have a rich culture, for a half-orc
race. But they still have bones in their hair and stone for
spear heads."
