Ash Rose Jackals
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Oct 16, 2022 16:13:42 GMT -5
Zarius looks around the camp. It really did seem like it was abandoned. Did they miss the miners on their way over here? Or did they perish somewhere out in the mountains days ago? It would be impossible to tell if that was the case.
He steps over to the door of one of the houses and fishes some lockpicking tools out of his bag and gets to work on unlocking the door. It takes a little bit of time, but eventually he gets the door open and he steps inside the building. It's dark, cold, and quiet inside. He knocks the snow off his boots and starts snooping around the room. Many of the belongings seem personal, so it's strange that they would leave them behind. He notes that there are no boots, coats, or digging tools though.
"I think some of them are still here. They must be in the mine. That said it does not look like they have been back recently so it is possible they are stuck somewhere in the mine."
Walking over to the stove he pulls some wood from the corner and gets a fire going. "Let us warm up for a bit then we can go looking. There is also a chance they will just come back here on their own. But if not, we can borrow those supplies in case we need them." He points towards some spare ropes hanging off the walls and a lantern.
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The Tinkertons
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Oct 16, 2022 19:09:44 GMT -5
Astrid watches intently as Zarius picks the lock, and when he glances toward her, he can see her eyes shining with interest. The child wants to learn to pick locks now.
They enter the outbuilding and look around. The personal affects left behind only encourage Astrid to want to find anyone stuck in the mines more. "If anyone is trapped, the rest of 'em probably couldn't get 'em out. How are we gonna do that?" she asks. Sure there are ropes and a few pickaxes and tools, but that could take the two of them days. "They might not have all that long. We should go now!" she urges. This building seems to house mostly bunks. Maybe there's something to find in other buildings, so she rushes out into the snow and looks around. Most of the windows are a bit too high, so she finds a crate and with ease hefts it up and uses it to climb up and look into the windows.
"The one has a map inside!" she shouts across the yard. "There's a big scribble and some writin' on it, but I can't read it from here!" Astrid hops off the crate and jiggles the doorknob, but it's also locked. It takes about fifteen seconds for her to decide Zarius is taking too long, so she shakes the doorknob harder and tries to just push the door open. It doesn't open. So she kicks it.
And now the door is open. The metal latch clatters to the ground, having been broken off by the force of her kick. Astrid slowly puts her foot down and looks a little guilty. That she did not mean to do.
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Ash Rose Jackals
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Oct 16, 2022 21:19:54 GMT -5
Zarius slowly leans out the doorway of the first building as he hears the crashing of the door from the next one over. He just gives Astrid this unimpressed look. "You could not have waited just a little longer?"
He sighs and trudges through the snow to her. Stepping over the door, he goes to the map and pulls it off the wall. "Fine. Since you are so eager, we will go now."
"BUT. I have some rules." He faces her and holds up a finger. "One. You stay within an arm's reach of me at all times. Two. We keep our voices down while in the mine to avoid any extra vibrations. Three. If I decide that it is too dangerous to proceed, we turn around immediately."
Astrid had already proven to him that she is willing to do pretty much anything, but also that she is very stubborn. He knew that if she saw someone in trouble she would not be willing to leave them behind even if it put herself in harms way. He wasn't so altruistic though. If something happened in there and they had to choose between the miners and themselves, he would choose themselves without hesitation. She needed to be willing to let him make that call, otherwise she could endanger both of them.
He gives her a stern look. "Can you do these three things?"
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Oct 16, 2022 21:29:34 GMT -5
"Sorry," Astrid says sheepishly as Zarius goes inside to collect the map. Then he lays down the ground rules, and she frowns at the last one. "What if it's not as dangerous as ya think it is?" she challenges, crossing her arms. "It could just look dangerous but be perfectly safe. Or at least passably safe. Yer the one who suggested the most dangerous thing we've done so far too." Her nose scrunches up, and she watches him carefully, but sees he won't budge. So she throws her hands up, and starts outside, rambling, "Fine, okay. If ya think it's too dangerous, we'll leave. And then we'll have trudged all the way out here fer nothin'. Just ta go back ta Skypeak and tell everyone who was worried what they're already gonna find out from the folks who left here. Their loved ones are trapped in a cave in, and there weren't nothin' we could do about it. We could try our darnedest and rescue all the folks that might be stuck and then come home with 'em and be heroes and reunite families and kids who're missin' their parents, but noooo Mister Zarius wanted ta turn around cause he didn't wanna die. I s'pose you've got people ta go back ta. But I've got nothin' ta lose unlike them folks in the mines and their families."
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Ash Rose Jackals
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Oct 17, 2022 12:40:44 GMT -5
Zarius just watches Astrid rant with an unimpressed look on his face and one hand on his hip.
"Are you done?" He asks when she's said her piece. "Look, if something happens to you out here then I will never hear the end of it from Cantio, and more importantly, Veliky. You are my responsibility even if this was all your idea."
He steps across the floor over to the door and hefts it back up, leaving it leaning against the wall. The child had ripped it clean off its hinges. It wasn't worth it to try and repair it.
"You do realize that there was no guarantee that we would be saving anyone, right? They could be long dead and frozen stiff at this point, and I would rather not die retrieving a bunch of corpses. Their work has its hazards, and their families are well aware of that."
It's not like he didn't understand what she was saying. Of course they would try to save them if they were still alive, but they had to be realistic. The signs were not promising, and even if they did find them, there was a high chance that they wouldn't be able to get them out. He follows at the kid, she might see some pretty grim things if the worst case scenario turned out to be reality.
"Do not think that trying and failing makes something a waste. Failure is how we learn and grow." He says as he goes back to the other hut and grabs a few coils of rope and two pickaxes. After he secures everything to his pack, he steps back out and over to her. "Another thing, do not undervalue your future. You might not have anyone you count as family now, but that does not mean you couldn't find someone in time. If recklessly throw your life away, you are losing that opportunity for happiness. You cannot save everyone. And sometimes, you do have to save yourself before you can even starting thinking about saving someone else. Trust me, I understand your frustration, but you cannot let it control you."
The tiefling walks past her and towards the entrance of the mine. "Come on. Or have you forgotten rule number one already?"
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Oct 18, 2022 19:08:57 GMT -5
"No, I didn't forget yer rule about bein' quiet," she grumbles, following after him. Astrid can't think of the last time she got a lecture from someone. She would definitely describe that as a lecture and not a lesson like Miss Veliky teaching her how to barter properly. But she supposes Zarius is right. It's not that she wants to throw her life away. With today being her first day adventuring, she feels like it's just begun. Maybe she is getting too ahead of herself.
So she lets him lead. She sticks close to his arm and follows him into the mines where the lanterns have long since burned out. Despite the dark, she doesn't have any trouble seeing. It's something she's always noticed about herself, this uncanny ability to see in the dark. Not many others have it, so she always figured that since a bunch of dwarves live underground, it's inherently part of them. All dwarves can see in the dark, right? Almost like a feline, her eyes seem to almost glow in the dark with a slight golden shimmer to them. It's kind of spooky for someone to look over their shoulder at the child in the darkness peering at them with laser focus.
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Ash Rose Jackals
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Oct 19, 2022 9:15:02 GMT -5
He didn't mean to be hard on her. He did understand where her optimism stemmed from. But he wanted her to be prepared for the worse in hopes that she would not completely fall apart should they encounter a gruesome scene down in the mine.
The follow the tracks for the railcars down an even slope. There were places where the path branched off to dead ends and they had to be careful to not get turned around in the dark. Deeper meant down, so that was easy enough to remember. Eventually they come to a larger chamber that has a number of mine carts pressed against the walls and some stools and tables which are toppled over. There are loose rocks scattered across the natural stone floor, suggesting that they fell from the ceiling of the chamber above them. There are timbers that support the area, but some appear to be damaged.
At the far end of this space is a vertical mind shaft with a lift. Surprisingly, the lift is at the top of the shaft. Someone must have left the mine after all, that would explain the old footprints in the snow outside. Zarius goes over and investigates the lift. It looks like it has survived the tremors fairly unscathed, so it should be safe to use. He removes the safety bar and tests the suspended platform. It bounces slightly under his weight, but holds fast with the safety lock still being engaged against the gears of the winch which raises and lowers the platform through a series of pullies and counter weights.
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Oct 21, 2022 23:59:46 GMT -5
Astrid sticks close to Zarius while they traverse into the mines. She keeps quiet as well. It's probably the most pouty silence of the adventure so far, but she doesn't grumble as much as she wants to. When they eventually reach the open area, she looks around at all the tools. It feels familiar though she's never seen or used anything like this before. She decides that must be her ancestry kicking in. Finally she decides to speak.
"Do ya think we'll get ta ride in a minecart?" she says hopefully with a sparkle in her eye. As Zarius inspects things, she keeps close as if there's an invisible leash between the two of them. The lift seems cool. It's like something from Skypeak Village! They must use the same mechanical dodads here. So Zarius checks it for safety measures, Astrid checks how the mechanics work and how it's built. She never could get close to the ones in Skypeak without getting chased off by guards. It's a neat system. She wonders if the BlixtbotsTM used this system for movement.
When Zarius decides it's stable enough to use, she joins him on the platform, stepping carefully just in case. Then they close the gate, and she looks at the buttons. "Can I press the button? Pleeeeeaaaase?"
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Ash Rose Jackals
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Oct 22, 2022 0:33:36 GMT -5
The tiefling looks down at the bright-eyed little half-dwarf. He supposes that she had been really well behaved so far. A reward for that would likely keep her behaving as they search for the miners. "Very well."
As Astrid pushes the button, the lift bounces a bit as the mechanisms engage with the gears and turn the drum that holds the ropes suspending the lift. Slowly, the ropes lower the platform into the gloom of the mine shaft below. They descend maybe fifty feet before the lift lurches to a stop at the bottom.
Looking ahead into the darkened tunnel, it isn't long before they see a number of collapsed tunnels. The supports must have failed during an earthquake. It would take a long time to clear all the debris out and they still didn't know if the miners were even here.
Zarius sighs, he wasn't sure if he could get Astrid to turn back at this point. He would drag her out kicking and screaming if this was a life or death situation, but unfortunately this was not that. They would just have to pick a direction and start digging. Maybe they would get lucky and pick the right pathway.
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