Chapter Two

## **Papers, Please!**

**Latrardag 9th of Biriskjur 1770**

Our intrepid adventurers awoke on their first day in Russet in one of the many bunks of The Flange and Whistle. After breaking their fast on a diet of salted porridge, topped with winter berries gathered by Nixe, they sought to gain entry to the one of the local mines, wherein Booker and Plymouth had prior interest in examining an artefact that had recently been uncovered.

The party met with the mine’s foreman Cleft Shallowide, a safety conscious Dwarf who was reluctant to grant them entry but, upon silver-tongued assurance from Plymouth Argyle, acquiesced to their request as long as they could grant him sight of any form of legitimate work permit.

Locating the Bureau of Licensing and confronted with a queue that extended all the way to the market place, Booker and Plymouth immediately decided they had had enough of the town’s bureaucracy and retired to the tavern for drinks with the locals.

The others persevered however and, fueled by dried meats procured by Fitz from a local street vendor, reached the front of the queue, whereupon they were abruptly informed by town clerk Gart Steakhammer, that there were no work permits left.

Just as Nixe and Fitz were becoming dejected by their interactions with the portly jobsworth, Brandyr stepped forward and revealed his prior relationship with Gart and his brother, Algar Steakhammer. They arranged to meet at local inn when the office closed at sundown and a leatherbound, white-ribboned crew permit was granted to the party.

Their roles, ostensibly for the purposes of “Archaeology”, were listed thusly:

* Brandyr Greybeard: Faenor/Religious Advisor
* Nixe Airendil: Ranger
* Ryan Fitzpatrick: Bursar
* Plymouth Argyle: Historical Consultant
* Booker Longsparkle: Technological Assistant

Returning to the mine, they were granted access to the artefact, which was being kept for safekeeping behind a locked door in a disused equipment store. Fitz and Plymouth were the first to notice that the item, a white cuboid with a pyramid shaped top and a sheared bottom, bore remarkable similarity to the top of The Agolith and Booker discovered that, whilst broken, the item housed a technological element, which he deduced to be similar to an experimental field of artificery that dealt with inter-planar travel.

Conspiring in Gnomish to steal the item, Plymouth Argyle distracted Cleft whilst Booker shoved the artefact into his newly fashioned Bag of Holding. Unaware of this, the foreman locked the door and escorted them to Shaft H, the mineshaft where the item had been discovered and had shortly thereafter become disused, following a series of accidents.

And then things got weird.

A barricade, hastily crafted from empty barrels and repurposed boards, separated Shaft H from the rest of the mine. It started with the sounds. An animal in pain. A cry for help. Then, when Nixe peeked through a gap between the planks, he could see something moving on the periphery of his Darkvision. Something he couldn’t quite make out.

Fitz, with his superior vision, stepped forward to take a look. One hundred and twenty feet of mineshaft, in plain sight before him and just beyond that something that he couldn’t quite make out. One by one they took the time to look through the boards. Booker saw the same as Nixe, Brandyr saw the same darkness but could make out the linked silver rings of his deity Berronar Truesilver shining just beyond and Plymouth, with his human eyesight, peered through to see an eye staring back at him from the other side.

Shaken, they turned to Cleft to ask about the nature of the incidents that occurred inside. He informed them that there were no major injuries, but more than you would expect for a thirty foot tunnel. Returning their attention back to the shaft, Nixe lit and loosed an arrow and listened for a sound that did not come.

Their curiosity truly piqued, they pushed the barricade aside and entered Shaft H. The roughhewn tunnel soon gave way to clean white walls, extending well beyond thirty, sixty or even one hundred and twenty feet. As they ventured down the cave they were taunted with yet more ghostly sounds from their pasts. And then the cave behind them collapsed.

Next: Chapter Three. Shafted