Zoom 2023-12-12-2023 21:00

Having nothing better to do, the party decides to excavate the fallen tunnel section and see what lies beyond. We reckon that we can use a stone-shape spell to form a semi-circular stone arch liner that is 6” thick, 2’ wide with a 14’ perimeter (ie radius about 4.5’). Joshua can cast four of these a day, so we reckon we can tunnel about 8 foot a day using the stone arches to shore up the excavation.
With the help of two dwarvish miners from the village, we manage a 7’ tunnel the first day, and manage 8’ on the next day – and realise that we are almost at the end of the blockage. However, we also realise that there are openings on either side of us, and decide that the best way to access them is to create our stone tunnel beyond them, and then open up archways through the sides.
We also come across one very finely worked stone amongst the other fallen stones and earth – it is resistant to any kind of magic (eg stone-shape, stone-tell etc).
The next day we gain access to the side chambers – on the right is what appears to be a bunk house with 2 human sized bunk beds, and a couple of empty chests – it looks to have been abandoned for at least 100 years. There are some crude carving on the bedposts – possibly archaic Dwarvish similar to the 'aquatic Dwarves' from the Stone Ship. On the other side there is what seems to be a kitchen with a well. We spend some time investigating down the well with a hobbit-on-a-rope. There is a large and very noisy fast flowing river about 90’ below (we later surmise that a lot of the noise must be coming from an underground waterfall).
Back at the Inn we ask more about the history of Karsten and the area. Apparently it has been mined for over 800 years – which was worthwhile for the small amounts of mithril that were recovered until it ran out whereupon Kartsen went into decline. There is an abandoned village in ‘The Cathedral’ – the ruined houses are of unknown construction, and there is a river running through it. (Yep – the one we encountered below the well) It was in this ruined village (or somewhere nearby) that the mage apprentice discovered the necromantic books/scrolls – though the ‘maguffin’ was discovered somewhere in the mines.
The next day we continue our excavations and break through to the tunnel beyond. It is lined completely in really high quality magic-resistant stone (like the one we had previously found). The tunnel is about 30’ wide and stretches for as far as we can see. We start making our way along the tunnel – cautiously at first, and then winding up to full Bazin marching speed as we realise that it is very, very, very long. In fact, after the first hour we wonder how long we should go on for – and at the two hour mark we decide that we need to turn round as we haven’t brought rations or camping gear etc and we have no idea how long this will go on for. There are occasional torch sconces so we leave a marker (say a known coin that we could locate) in the last sconce we reach and head back home.
The weather remains the same – we still can’t travel overground, so we kit up for a long underground journey to investigate what lies at the end of this extremely well made tunnel that starts (or rather, ends up) at the four pretty uninteresting and inaccessible chambers that we have discovered.