Into the Depths

[Celephai]

((Looking for another player, maybe a GM, depending on interest level))

Celephai gazed down into the chasm below. It didn't seem to end. Ever. Just one, big, gaping maw into the void within the earth.

"Dwarves."

Celephai loved dwarves. She'd heard about them, seen their great works, spoken with a few, and even been down in one of their mountain-homes once. She loved them because they always dug too deep. Maybe they loved the precious metals, the dark caves, the horrible entities and gates to what lay beneath the earth to be forgotten by the eons past... Well, that last one was a stretch.

She was here because she wanted to see what lay in the depths of this dwarven hold. Of course, she didn't dare go alone, that would be stupid. Many things tend to infest a hole in the ground, and the way this one had been abandoned, something terrible might have found it's home among the deeps. Of course, it could have just been abandoned for no reason (dwarves ARE strange), and there could be nothing down there... but nonetheless, she wanted help. She had terrorized one of the local children of Wistvale to put up a sign:

"Wanted: Companion for Journey. Deep Underground. Likely Battles. Death Certain. May or May not be Paid. Dwarves Involved, but not Recommend Apply."

She felt it hit the right chord. She left a note for the location with the sign. The place itself was nestled in a vast forest, near a great cleft in the ground, stretching for miles.

Cel sat in an abandoned surface camp, rifling though the various crates and bins for anything that could help her in the descent.

[Alec]

I always seem to pick the weirdest things off of the board, Alec thinks to himself, wandering towards the surface camp. I mean, Rational picks up his train of thought, "Death Certain"? "May or May not be Paid"? What the hell is wrong with you, man?

Shrugging, Alec walks past the first tent on the surface camp. "I like dwarves," he mumbles aloud. Louder, he calls "Hello! Anyone here? I'm here about the dwarves."

[Celephai]

"Gods help us if there are dwarves still here, because they are NOT going to be friendly."

Cel's voice came from a dilapidated house not far from Alec, which was soon followed by the sound of something wooden being promptly broken, and the sound of someone stumbling inside. There was silence for a few moments, and then the door on the house was kicked down from the inside, revealing a sign on the inside that said 'push', which Cel was certainly not going to obey.

She shuffled out, dusting herself off, and looked up (or down, rather, as she was a whole head taller than him) at Alec.

"...Are you sure you're here about the job on the sign? I figured someone who'd want to do this would seem a bit less inclined to be either sane or social."

[Alec]

"Sane?" Alec says, looking up at her. "Is sanity a job requirement? I seriously hope not. And my social skills are....well, lacking. To put it simply." Looking around, Alec raises an eyebrow. "Anyway. The sign said dwarves involved. Where are they?"

[Celephai]

Well, the young man at least wanted to be crazy and suicidal enough to do this, and that was probably as good as it was going to get. Cel tapped the ground with a heel.

"If they are alive, which I hope they aren't, then they're under here... for some distance. If they're dead, then they're probably still under there, and not moving, but this infers something worse than dwarves might be down there. Of course, they could all have vacated for... some reason or other. Hard to tell with dwarves. In any case, we're probably going to die. So, if you're not feeling up to it, just say so and walk away."

She walked into another house, the noise inside meant she was ransacking the place.

[Alec]

Shrugging, Alec follows her into the house. "Sounds like dwarves." Looking about, thinks for a moment, then nods and starts ransacking the hut along with Cel. "Found anything useful yet? Or that tells you what may or may not have happened to the dwarves?"

[Celephai]

Celephai answers from another room.

"Mushrooms. Rotten Mushrooms. Mushrooms I don't even want to- wait. Found rope. We have rope... we have ample rope. Nevermind, we're going to need more rope."

It was rotted rope made from a plant fiber, and the moisture had gotten to it. There were crates of the stuff, but none of it was useful anymore.

"I don't know what happened to the former owners of this settlement, but whatever clues would come from below. Dwarves are strange that way: The surface workers were always considered strangers, outcasts... but they were necessary. Either the first to flee to safety or the first to get an arrow in the back."

She began rifling through some shelves, drawers, and various cabinets.

"...Nothing useful in here, anything over there?"

[Alec]

"Nooo," Alec says, pulling a hand of mush out of a crate. "Fantastically nauseating. Anyway, you seem fairly knowledgeable about dwarves - ever heard of the city that allowed the air-touched to rejoin with all their old stations?" Cracking open a crate, he pulls the top off and looks into it and raises an eyebrow. "Um....might have something. Though....not really sure what I'm looking at here."

[Celephai]

"As much as I enjoy the history and company of dwarves, I've never heard of- woah."

Celephai strolled over to Alec's freshly-opened crate. Inside of it lay hundreds and hundreds of small, opaque bricks of a firm, yet smooth material. She picked up one, which fit in her hand quite easily, scratched it, smelled it, then finally took a small bite out of it. She immediately spit her sample out.

"Soap. It's soap. Well, we're getting closer. Keep looking, we're going to need rope, and lots of it, otherwise we might be having issues. Lanterns as well, maybe some spikes and some cloth... should be here somewhere. This IS the trade depot... What else would you take along to search a grim, dark place far beneath the earth where forgotten horrors might infest the blackness?"

She shot him a grin before investigating another crate and prying it open.

"...Chains. Joy. Well, if we can't find any rope, we'll at least have something to use on the way down. Looks like it's all iron, too."

[Alec]

"Even better than rope," Alec says, concentrating on the chains for a moment. Lifting one, he swirls it around Cel's head and coils it around his arm. "Glad I came along now?"

[Celephai]

Celephai rolled her eyes.

"Well, if you continue to be this useful: Yes."

She pried open another crate, immediately slamming it shut.

"...do not ignite anything in this room. It appears I have found a small stash of dwarven drinks. No sparks, no flame... not even any heavy breathing."

She decided to try yet another crate, which she raised an eyebrow at.

"Well, this makes things abundantly easier. Climbing hooks, some other sharp objects... what appears to be a totem of some kind..."

Cel tossed a carved animal skull aside as she looked through through the varied contents of the current crate.

"See if you can find something to store some of that booze in. It'll come in handy as fuel for lanterns... if we find any."

[Alec]

Watching the skull bounce off the floor, Alec walks over and scoops it up. Staring at the carvings for a moment, he slips it into an inside pocket. "Right, containers." Searching through some crates, he finally smiles and reaches into one. "A-ha. Water skins." Walking to the booze-crate, he begins to fill one of the skins. After a few moments, he laughs. "You know," he says, capping the first skin and submerging the second, "if we don't find any lanterns, then at least we can die drunk and happy, no?"

[Celephai]

Celephai grinned at Alec's latest remark.

"Drunk, yes, but likely dead, too. There's a reason it's also readily usable as firebomb fuel."

Dwarven food in general had a tendency to be easily weaponized. Bread could easily be used as a bludgeoning weapon, alcoholic beverages often made for some of the finest fuel known to man, and their soups could also function as a high-grade cleaning agent.

Cel rifled through another crate, pulling out a few tarps.

"Well, it's not cave spider silk, but it's durable at least. Any other things you think we might need to survive against the denizens of the deep?"

[Alec]

"Hey, I said we'd die drunk and happy for a reason." Slinging both skins over a shoulder, he cocks his head to the side and thinks for a moment. "Well, for one, I'd like to know your name. Unless you want me to call you Tentacle-Lady the entire time I'm with you."

[Celephai]

Cel rolled her eyes. It was always the tentacles that got people's attention, particularly the women.

"Celephai. Do you have a name, or should I just call you 'crazy'?"

At this point, he'd have to be crazy to want to do something like this. Plumbing the depths for knowledge that may be guarded by horrible things which should not be named nor described often scared away all the sane explorers... but sanity was in short supply between the two of them, so it was likely the best combination one could put together.